XMen:The Next Generation
by Courtney Lott
Summary: Trask, the man who invented the Sentinel is secured behind bars...or is he? With the help of some new mutants, can the X-Men and Brotherhood ban together to stop Trask? Read and find out.
1. After School Confrontation

Chapter 1: After School Confrontations 

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. This story takes place during Sharli's story Challenge. Her story focused on the Brotherhood; this story focuses on the X-Men. I hope you enjoy it. 

***

Ryan Walker did not like it when people, especially big people, picked on younger, smaller people. And so when his little brother came home from school one day with a bloody nose and a story about a bigger kid beating up on him, Ryan felt a twinge of anger he had never quite felt before. 

He wasn't really the violent type, in fact, he had tried all through out high school to avoid confrontation as much as possible, but when it came to his little brother, no one touched him. It did not take much prying to find out that the bully's name was Paul Dorsey and Ryan decided to have a civil chat with him after school. 

  
But when the next day came, Paul Dorsey's attitude was enough to enrage anybody. He did not even try to hide the fact that he beat up numerous freshmen as an initiation into high school. No matter how hard Ryan tried to keep calm, the boy's arrogant attitude caused his temper to flare up. After an exchange of less than edifying words, Ryan completely lost it. 

He knew through their whole conversation that it was going to happen, but he did not realize the magnitude of his future actions. His head and chest had been burning, and his vision blurring with a red mist, when finally, he blacked out. 

  
Paul Dorsey on the other hand, remembered quite vividly every detail of what happened, and would until the day he died. He had been laughing at Ryan's red face when a stop sign uprooted and knocked him onto his backside. Paul picked it up and tried to swing it at Ryan but it swatted him to the ground again like a giant fly swatter. Then, a lamppost fell towards him. He rolled away, but it landed on his foot with a sickening crunch. 

Paul howled in pain. 

The windows of the school shattered and flew towards him but he shielded his face. He scooted back against the wall and looked up at Ryan, whose eyes had turned a bright red. Behind him, the tables rose from the ground and smashed into Paul. 

He remembered nothing more...


	2. Tsunami

Chapter 2: Tsunami 

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. This story takes place during Sharli's story Challenge. Her story focused on the Brotherhood; this story focuses on the X-Men. I hope you enjoy it. 

***

Andrea Daugherty needed to let it all out. For the longest time she had bottled it up, but no more. She slammed the door to her house shut and walked in to her back yard. The music blared from the hidden speakers in the rocks by the waterfall of the pool. 

She picked up a loose rock and flung it at the fence. The echo resounded through the air. Bits of wood chipped off. She smiled, and let another fly. Rock after rock, more wood fell. The rocks were all gone. 

She stomped on the ground and waved her hands in the air. Andrea could not even imagine how she must look, but it did not matter. The tension had to get out. 

  
Water splashed on her pants and she opened her eyes. 

She was five feet away from the pool, and even the strong wind could not have blown it that far. Andrea walked over to the pool. A thought came to her. She swung her arms up in the air and the water sprouted, like a fountain. 

Her jaw dropped. 

Asher. 

The mutant gene had gone to her just as it had gone to him. What could she do? Her parents weren't home so that was good. But still. They had tried to send her brother Asher to a "home" when they found out he had powers, but he had run away. Maybe she could do the same. She ran into the house. The water followed to the door. She slammed it shut and leaned her back against it. 

  
"Stop, please stop," she begged. 

Andrea turned to the pool and put her hands up. The water sloshed out of the pool in the other direction and knocked down the fence. 

"No!" She clasped her hands to her head. 

A crash behind her made her spin around. The water faucet had broken off and water was shooting from the pipes. She waved her hands, begging it to stop, but more water came out. 

"Help, oh help!" She cried. 

But who was she kidding? No one had been able to help Asher, and no one would help her.   



	3. Red Haze

Chapter 3: Red Haze 

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. I hope you enjoy it. The X-Men will be mentioned in the next chapter. I promise. 

***

When Ryan regained consciousness he felt as if he were about to vomit, and tried to sit up to do so, but then he realized that he could not move. His arms and legs were bound to the table he lay on. In fact, he had straps on his shins, thighs, waist, and chest. He could not move a single inch. He opened his eyes, but a blinding light forced them shut again. 

What had happened? Where was he? The last thing he remembered was yelling at Paul Dorsey. Everything after that was a red haze. 

  
Somewhere to the left a door opened. 

Ryan listened to the shoes squeak across the floor. He tried to turn his head, but then realized that somehow it too had been strapped down. 

  
"Well, well, well, look who's finally awake." The voice came to Ryan's left ear, coated in a thick Southern accent. 

  
Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but the man interrupted him. "Let's get the obvious questions out of the way. My name is William Stryker, my colleague George Dobson and I own a uh- school for special young folks like yourself." 

  
"Special folk?" Ryan asked. 

  
Stryker smiled and adjusted his glasses. "You don't recall what happened, do you?" 

  
Ryan tried to shake his head, but then remembered that he could not. "No." 

  
The door opened again and more shoes squeaked across the floor. 

This new person sounded larger than Stryker. He put more weight down when he walked, he also breathed heavier, like the very act of walking burdened him. 

Ryan felt extremely tired. Tired of the blinding light in his eyes, tired of not being able to move. But mostly, he simply felt exhausted, like every bit of energy had been sucked from his limbs. 

  
"Ah, Dobson," Stryker said. "Ryan, this is George Dobson." 

  
"Um, I don't mean to be rude, but can you take the light out of my eyes?" Ryan asked. 

  
Stryker and Dobson laughed. 

Ryan knew that kind of laugh. He had heard it many times before in horror films when a villain thinks he'd got the upper hand. Only in horror films you know that they are just that, films. You can turn them off with a click of a button. But the laughing above his face he could not turn off. It was there and it was very real. Ryan's heart jittered and he clenched his fists, fear trying to take over. He pushed against the straps with all the strength left in him. 

  
Rip! 

The straps on his wrists broke. 

The laughing stopped. 

Ryan struggled against the other straps, and against fatigue. 

Snap! 

More straps popped off. 

Stryker and Dobson were yelling now. 

Ryan pushed off the bed and fell on his face. With the light no longer in his eyes he could see the door. He ran until indescribable pain shot through his back and filled the rest of his body. Electric blue light filled his vision as he fell to the ground. He could smell smoke and his back burned. Before he could get up again another shock of pain coursed through his body. Ryan curled into a ball and held his knees. His body shook violently. He felt cold and hot all at the same time. The burning moved from his back to his shoulders, and then to his chest. 

Would it ever stop? 

What had he done to deserve this? What had happened back there with Paul? Why had he blacked out? 

  
Four strong hands pulled a straight jacket onto him and then wrapped a thick chain around his entire body. They dragged him out of the room into another dark room, and then threw him on the floor. 

With a loud crash the door slammed shut.   



	4. Light Beyond Darkness

Chapter 4: Light Beyond Darkness 

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. 

***

Charles Xavier sat across from Andrea. He had picked up Andrea's activities on Cerebro and rushed with Storm to help immediately. Now they sat in the living room of her house. 

Andrea sat in an easy chair with her head down and her eyes closed. She had long stopped crying but could not stop shaking. All she could think of was Asher. 

  
"Andrea, I know this is extremely difficult for you. With all that happened to your brother, I can understand that you are frightened. But don't worry, this can all work out." Xavier said. 

  
Andrea drew up her knees and hugged them. How could it possibly work out in any way? She could not even trust herself to move for fear that she might unleash the water again. Even her shaking caused the glass of water on the coffee table to shiver. 

  
"I have a school in Westchester. It's a school for children like you. I teach them how to control and develop their gifts. They go to regular school but they train at my mansion." He held up his hand before she protested. "I know that when your brother gained his ability to control fire your parents tired to send him to a "home" of some sort, but this is nothing like that. All the children are like you, and so am I, so we understand what you are going through." 

  
Andrea looked up for the first time, and her shaking calmed. Light in a dark room. A single star shining in a dark and stormy night. The professor was right, everything would work out. 

She extended a hand to the man in the wheel chair. "Call me Andie."   



	5. The Institute

Chapter 5 : The Institute

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. 

***

In all her life Andie had never seen such a large house. It looked almost as big as her high school back in the Bronx, only much nicer, and whiter and cleaner. 

Her father drove through the gate and headed for the mansion. 

Xavier had told her parents that she could get into the college of her choice with a full ride if she would only go to the Institute for the next three years. Her parents immediately accepted the idea and she started her journey to the institute. It had not seemed like a long journey; she had fallen asleep halfway there. 

  
Her parents parked in front of the mansion, mouths agape. Neither of them had ever seen a house of its magnitude either. 

The professor sat at the top of the stairs waiting to greet them. He smiled at their approach. The smile emitted certain warmth that seeped down inside of you; like a smile a grandfather or a wise old priest might have. 

  
Andie heard his voice in her head: Everything will be fine. 

"Welcome to the institute," Xavier said, aloud. He waved his hand at the mansion. "If you'll come with me." 

  
They followed the professor into the house through the double doors. 

Inside the mansion looked even more impressive. A chandelier hung from the ceiling and a red velvet carpet covered the floor. Light poured in through the giant windows onto the carpet and the bottom of the staircase. 

The professor led them past soft white pillars to a small office. He wheeled behind a large desk, and motioned to the three seats in front of it. "If you will have a seat for a moment we can wait for someone to come an take you to your room." 

  
"Professor, are you sure this is the right place for Andrea?" Her mother asked. 

  
"Mrs. Daugherty, this is the perfect place for you daughter, trust me." He looked into her anxious eyes. Her face that had once been beautiful and soft had over the years become wrinkled with worry and care. Ever since the incident with Asher she had tried with all her might to protect her daughter from not only the same disaster but the big, bad world as well. 

Time had not been kind. 

But the professor eased her mind, sending thoughts to her brain telling her that it would be the best way to protect her daughter, and for the first time since the incident with Asher, a genuine smile warmed her face. 

  
Mr. Daugherty, a very shrewd man, and would be a little harder to persuade. He always looked at things from every angel, and did not even trust his own thoughts or emotions. It would take a bit more than some telepathic nudging from the professor to convince him that all would be well. 

  
"I'm still not sure about this," he said. "Can Andrea leave if she does not feel this is right?" 

  
"Of course," the professor said. "The only thing keeping Andie here is Andie." 

  
Mr. Daugherty rubbed his chin. He turned the idea over and over in his mind and he still did not like it. Andie sensed that he was starting to change him mind and knew she had to act quick. 

"Dad, I'll be fine. This place is my chance to get into any college I want. You know we don't have the money to send me anywhere . . . this is a good sale. Don't miss the opportunity." 

  
He sighed. "Fine, but you call us if for any reason you want to come home." 

  
Andie smiled. "I'll be home on holidays Dad. No worries." 

  
"Well, then," the professor said. "If you could sign some of these papers." 

  
The sound of footsteps made them turn. 

Two girls stood in the doorway; no one had heard it open. One had brilliant red hair and soft green eyes and the other had brown hair and blue eyes; both had welcoming smiles. Andie liked them right off. 

"Hello Professor," the red head said. "We're here to take Andrea to her room." 

  
The brunette waved at Andie. "Hi, I'm Kitty, and this is Jean." 

  
"Bye Mom and Dad." Andie hugged her mother and squeezed her father's shoulder. Then, the two girls led her out of the room.

Mr. Daugherty watched her go with sad eyes. He did not know what had caused her to turn on him the way she had. 

Asher had not been his fault; it had been Asher's. She could not blame him for what happened. He sighed and looked back at the professor. 

  
"Don't worry, she will be fine," Xavier reassured him. 

  
"I hope so."   



	6. Gambit

Chapter 6: Gambit

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. Okay...I know that in Sharli's fic Gambit is with the Brotherhood, but the glory of being a fanfic writer is being able to manipulate situations. 

***

When Andie woke up the next morning she felt incredibly refreshed. She did not remember the last time she had slept so well. 

Maybe now I can ask the professor to find Asher for me, she thought, realizing the source of her newfound happiness. 

Rolling out of bed she pulled on her cloth shorts and big baggy t-shirt and bolted out the door. The hallway shone in the bright morning light as if to promise her a wonderful day. She could already smell the bacon as she turned the corner. 

BAM! 

  
She hit something hard. It sent her back a few steps and made her squint her eyes but she did not fall. All her kickboxing lessons with Asher had paid off. 

  
"Wow, better watch where you're going Cherie." 

  
Andie looked up to see a breath-taking man standing before her. Not handsome exactly, but attractive, definitely attractive. His brown hair was spiked and flopped over his forehead, but his eyes were what really took her breath, they were not brown, blue, black or green but red. He had the same build as Asher only slightly smaller, and seemed quite cocky. Plus, his thick Cajun accent was enough to make any girl swoon. 

For a moment she felt dumb and did not know what to say. Whenever she met guys for the first time she normally just smiled and slugged them in the shoulder to let them know she was not to be taken advantage but was willing to give them a chance to impress her, but this one took her off guard. 

She blinked and her mind screamed at her: Say something you dummy! 

Her lips moved but nothing came out. The man grinned and Andie saw how cocky he was. Her confidence returned. 

  
"Why don't you?" Andie said, her confident smile returning. Why should she let this guy make her turn to noodles? He was no different than the rest. She crossed her arms. 

  
He shook his head. "I don't have time for this little girl. This is my house so you'll just have to watch out for the big boys, okay?" He put his hands on her shoulders to move her out of the way, but then something happened that he did not expect. In two seconds he found himself lying on his back staring up at the "little" girl. 

Apparently she had grabbed his hands and flipped him over her head. He stared up at her. She smiled at him and started to walk away, hands on hips. 

  
"I guess the 'big boy' will just have to watch out for the little girl from now on, eh?" 

  
He grinned and jumped to his feet. "Ooo, feisty, I like 'em that way." 

  
Andie stopped walking and looked back at him, her eyes narrow. She stuck her tongue out at him. 

  
"You'd better put that thing back in your mouth unless that's an invitation Cherie," he said, still grinning. 

She swung a fist to his face but he grabbed her arm and flipped her the same way she had flipped him. But as she fell she hooked her right leg under his and he fell too. They both landed on the ground with a grunt. 

Andie got up first and put a knee to his chest and applied pressure, then, she clamped his wrists down with her hands. "Now, if you're quite done being macho man, I hear breakfast calling me, so-" she patted him on the face. "I'll be seein' ya." 

  
This time he let her stand and walk off. But he chuckled to himself and promised that hallway, "She'll be mine, one of these days she'll be mine."   



	7. Breakfast

Chapter 7: Breakfast

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review. It means more than can be expressed in writing. 

***

"Oh all the lousy, rotten, no-good, low life-" 

  
"Hey Andie, you okay?" 

  
Andie dropped down into a chair at the breakfast table and reached for the bacon plate in front of her. "No Kitty, some stupid, conceited, Cajun who must think he's God's gift to women, just, ooo, really irritated me." 

  
Kitty and Jean laughed. "Oh, you mean Gambit?" Kitty said. "Yeah, he's a bit of a pain isn't he? What happened?" 

  
Andie chugged her whole milk glass dry and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. "We accidentally ran into each other and he made some stupid comment about me being a little girl and needing to watch out for the big boys, and well . . . he got what he deserved." She explained. Her mind traveled back to her brother once more. He had taught her how to defend herself. Asher had always been afraid the big bad boys were going to hurt his little sister. He had taught her how to throw a punch and escape any physically hold her opponent could muster. 

  
"What did you do to him?" Jean asked. 

  
Andie's face turned a bit red. Now that she thought about it, maybe it had not really been necessary, but he had made her so mad, he had touched her, and she did not like being touch by strange men. "Well, he tried to moved me out of the way and I flipped him over my head." 

  
More laughs from Kitty and Jean. The door opened and another girl walked in. She had brown hair, but two white streaks in the front. "What's so funny?" The girl asked in a thick Mississippi accent. 

  
"Andie had a little encounter with the Ragin' Cajun," Kitty explained. 

  
The girl rolled her eyes. "Welcome to the institute, I'm Rogue." They shook hands. "Steer clear of that one, he's a loser." 

  
"He's one of those guys my brother would beat the tar out of and forbid me ever to even talk to," Andie said. 

Well, get over it girl, Asher's not here, so you'll just have to take care of yourself now.   



	8. Menace

Chapter 8: Menace

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review. It means more than can be expressed in writing. 

***

No light came from any crack in the wall, so he had no idea where the door had run off to, and the room made him dizzy with the smell of alcohol. Ryan made up his mind; he stood up and tried to make his way to a wall. He went backwards and felt carefully with his heels so maybe they would hit first. The floor felt smooth and clean under his feet, like tile that someone kept extra good care of. After a while his heel hit something hard and he leaned back carefully. 

He had found the wall. It felt just like the floor, smooth and clean. 

Slowly, he inched along, now trying to find the corner. He figured that he would eventually find the door; it could not hide forever. Ha! I found the corner, he thought and continued to slide along the next wall. He had absolutely no idea what he would do when he found the door, but at least he would have his bearings. Maybe he could hear something from the other side. 

  
Okay that's corner number two, only two walls to go, the door's gotta be somewhere in here. He shivered, and remembered the sick feeling from before; it had not left him just yet. The third corner came as a surprise and he dropped to his knees. His stomach contracted and he vomited. He fell against the wall, unable to hold himself up. The chain around his body clinked against the wall. After a few minuets of sweating and trembling and breathing deeply, he pushed back up the wall and continued his search for the door. 

He bumped into a rise in the wall; he had found the door. Well, I've accomplished two things today. He rolled so that his ear flattened against the metal door. Nothing. He could hear nothing. The door opened and he fell out into the light, head first. White stars poked holes in his vision. He groaned and rolled onto his back. Two men stared down at him, one in his fifties and the other in his thirties. 

  
"What's up?" He said sheepishly. 

  
The two men squatted down on their haunches. "If we take you out of that little suit will you promise to stay calm?" The older man said. 

  
Stryker! Ryan thought, remembering his voice. "Uh, will you tell me what's going on?" 

  
Stryker smiled and motioned to some guards. "Get him up." 

  
The muscle heads jerked him up from the floor and took the chain and jacket off. Ryan stretched. 

  
"But cuff him." The younger, and much more muscular man snapped. 

  
The men jerked Ryan's hands down and chained together. What had he done to deserve this treatment? What happened to Paul? Dobson grabbed him by his upper arm and dragged him down a long white hall. Stryker walked on his other side and the guards lingered behind them. 

  
The building reminded him of a hospital. On either side of the hallway there were brown doors with little wooden signs that had different names or words in white letters on them. 

It smelled like a hospital too. 

Ryan's bare feet started hurting. He looked down to see that with every step he left a bloody footprint. What on earth? He wondered. Finally, when Ryan knew he would pass out or vomit with another step, Dobson stopped and unlocked one of the brown doors. He shoved Ryan in and told the guards to stay outside. Stryker shut the door, locked it, and put the key in his pocket. The room had nothing in it at all but a small table and chair. It reminded Ryan of one of those cop movies where they were interrogating some hard criminal because above the table a single light swung back and forth, pushed by the air conditioner. 

Dobson pushed Ryan to the table. 

  
"Sit." 

  
Ryan grit his teeth. So I'm a dog now huh? But he kept his mouth shut and sat. "Look, what-" 

  
"Shut up mutant, we ask the questions here." Dobson shouted. 

  
"Mutant?" 

  
Stryker walked into the light, an evil smile spread across his face. He leaned forward and put his hands on the table. "You don't remember what happened between you and that boy after school, do you?" He asked. 

  
Ryan's eyebrows came together and he shook his head. "What happened?" 

  
Stryker chuckled. "Mr. Dorsey is in the hospital because of you." He stared at Ryan's confused face. "You threw lunch tables, a stop sign, and a lamp post at that boy, but not with your hands. The boy has two broken legs, a concussion, and a broken arm. The police tried to arrest but you resisted and put two of them in the hospital. They had to shoot you with a tranquilizer gun. And you don't remember any of this." 

  
"How is that possible? I blacked out. The last thing I remember is . . . " He put his hand to his head. Everything seemed bleary until he woke up strapped to the table. "I remember Paul saying that he would keep picking on my little brother and that there was nothing I could do about it, and . . . that's when I blacked out." 

  
"So," Stryker began stroking his chin. "What we can infer from this is that you black out when you use your power. Has this ever happened to you before?" 

  
Ryan shook his head. He still could not believe what this man had said. It made no sense at all, but why would he be here otherwise? His mind began to work quickly. It must be triggered by intense emotion. 

So when I got angry with Paul, I lost it, but why did I pass out? Can I do it when I'm conscious? Can I use this in a way that is safe or can help people? I feel really cold. Oh crap, I think I'm gonna vomit again. 

Ryan coughed and leaned forward before he could ask to go to the bathroom. He threw up again. His body convulsed and he fell to his knees. 

  
Dobson made a disgusted noise and grimaced. "Get up, you pathetic waste." He walked to the door and opened it with his key and called to the guards to get someone to come clean up his mess. Ryan spit and scooted back into his seat. 

"Sorry," he mumbled. 

  
Stryker stepped forward and put his hands on Ryan's shoulders. Their eyes locked, and any hope Ryan had of Stryker being kind to him dissipated in the cold, hard stare. 

"You're a menace to society with those powers of yours, sonny, so we're gonna have to keep you here under lock and key for the rest of your life." 

  
* * *

  
The guards walked Ryan down the hall with their big hand clamped around his biceps. Ryan looked around the hallway for something to attack them with. He had to get away, find help somewhere, learn to control his power, and say goodbye to his family. Up ahead he saw a fire hose in the wall. 

He concentrated hard on it. 

Move, he begged with his mind. Blackness crept around the corners of his vision but he fought against it. 

The hose burst out of its case with a loud crash and glass covered the ground. Before the guards could move it wrapped itself around their bodies, including their mouths, and pulled them away from their prisoner. Ryan grabbed the keys from one of their belts and bolted. 

  
Down the fire escape he ran, his hands still cuffed together. The sirens echoed through the night. When Ryan figured out that he was in the middle of downtown Orlando he felt a little less panicked. In an alley, quite a ways away from the lab, he unlocked his handcuffs and slipped them in his pocket. 

Now for home, and help, he thought.   



	9. Discussion

Chapter 9: Discussion 

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review. It means more than can be expressed in writing. 

***

"We're sorry we let him get away Mr. Stryker," one of the guards said. 

  
"Don't worry, next time he'll have a guard of his own kind, and besides, I planned it that way."   



	10. Goodbye

Chapter 10: Goodbye

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review. It means more than can be expressed in writing. 

***

Kael squeaked when Ryan put a hand over his little mouth and a finger to his own. When he took it away Kael sat up and threw his arms around his brother's neck and squeezed hard. 

"Ryan, Ryan those men took you away, I thought you were going to jail, and you'd leave me forever." 

  
Ryan's throat went tight and he could not speak for a moment, but then he pushed his emotions down. "Look Kael, I am going to have to go, but I'll be okay. I just came to say goodbye. You-" 

  
"No, no, no you can't leave Ryan, please don't leave!" Kael cried. 

  
Ryan held his little brother by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "Kael, I have to go, and you've got to promise me something okay? You've got to be strong and not let people push you around, but don't ever loose you temper. Do that for me, okay?" 

  
The little boy took a deep breath, wiped his eyes, and nodded. "I promise." The boys hugged again. 

  
Ryan felt like crying himself, but he had to suppress it. Emotion just caused problems. 

People could get hurt. 

  
* * * 

  
"Give it ten more seconds, and then move in, men," Stryker ordered quietly. "We have to make this look real." 

  
* * * 

  
A tear slid down Ryan's cheek and everything went black. 

  



	11. Red Carpet

Chapter 11: Red Carpet

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review. It means more than can be expressed in writing. 

***

Ryan woke up to loud shouts and more cold metal around his wrists. He could not see much because he lay on his stomach with his face pressed to the red carpet. 

What's going on? He wondered. Oh no, please no. I blacked out! Red carpet - his carpet. But his carpet was not red; his carpet was brown. 

Someone jerked him up right and then he saw the carnage. Blood dripped down the walls in little beads and the floor was now soaked in it. Furniture turned upside down and broken in half sprinkled the living room. Some men were placing the bodies into body bags. His stomach churned as he looked down to see Kael lying a few feet away. 

The TV laid on top of his little body, and his face was barley recognizable. 

Ryan felt tears well up in his eyes, and for the third time that day threw up. 

Please no, he begged. Please no. 

  
"You see why you must be put away. You're dangerous." Ryan looked at Stryker and then back at his little brother. 

  
Please no. 

  
* * * 

  
Ryan lay on the floor of his cell tears streaming down his face. They had taken away his handcuffs to keep him from suicide attempts, but Ryan would not have tried anyway. 

Death is too good for me, he thought. How could he do this? What kind of sick creature was he? 

"God, why did you even create me in the first place?" He shouted at the ceiling. "What did that kid do to deserve this? A monster for a brother. Tell me why?" Ryan collapsed to the floor. 

  
He did not sleep that night, he only lay there staring off into the darkness, crying mostly, and sometimes begging the silence to let it all be a dream. But then the door opened. Because of the light, all he could see was an outline of two people, one he knew to be Stryker, and the other, a woman. 

  
"Hello Ryan, meet Yuriko Oyama. She'll be your guard for the rest of your pathetic life." 


	12. Tour

Chapter 12: Tour

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to all of those who have reviewed. I hope you enjoy this.

***

Three years later . . . 

  
Students gathered in the breakfast room to meet the two new students that had just come to the institute. 

Andie glanced around the room and crossed her arms. 

Things had changed a bit since she had first come to the institute. Having the students meet the new ones had been her idea, and everyone liked it. No one had to be surprised when they saw a new face in the hallway. She still had not been able to find her brother but she had at least a decent idea that he was still in New York. But he moved too fast so they could never quite catch up with him. If he knew she was looking for him she knew that he would stand still for at least a moment. He couldn't have completely forgotten about her, could he have? 

  
The sound of doors opening jerked her from her thoughts. She tried to see over everyone, but the curse of the dwarf made that absolutely impossible. Andie liquidated, a trick she'd learned in her second year at the school, and moved to the front of the group. The professor rolled in with the two students behind him, a boy and a girl. 

  
"I'd like you all to meet our new students," Xavier said. "Would you please introduce yourselves?" 

  
The girl stepped forward and every male mouth dropped. Her skin seemed to emit an ethereal light that gave her the look of an angel. Raven black hair tumbled down to her mid-back and underneath thick black lashes deep blue eyes peaked out. When she smiled her teeth also shone. It reminded Andie of toothpaste commercial. She spoke, her voice flowed out like silk. 

  
"I'm Hope, I'm seventeen, and I can blend into my surroundings." She stepped back behind the professor. 

The boy sauntered up. 

  
Now the girls drooled. Dark brown hair stuck out from under his black cowboy hat and the light reflected off of the earring in his left ear. Two brownie colored eyes stared cockily out at the crowd, and he began to talk. 

"Max Trask, 17, and I can control and create electricity." He winked at Andie and stepped back. Andie jutted her lower jaw out and rolled her eyes. 

  
"Andie, would you please show them around the mansion?" 

  
Andie suppressed a groan and smiled. "Of course professor." She said aloud. 

/Why me?/ She asked telepathically. 

  
/This was your idea/, he returned and smiled. 

  
"Well, right here," Andie said waving around the room "is the dinning room. Now if you'll follow me, I can show you the rest of the building."   



	13. Fear of Flying

Chapter 13: Fear of Flying 

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks to all of those who have reviewed. I hope you enjoy this.

***

Over the next few weeks, Andie and Hope grew very close. They worked together in the danger room constantly and became the best team in the school. Max also worked with them, but became quite an annoyance. He acted so much like Gambit that it made Andie sick, so she avoided him as much as possible. 

  
Max and Hope had only been at the school for three months but they just about kicked everyone else's butts in the danger room accept for Andie, most likely because they practiced together. All work and no play, however, was not their motto. 

Andie and Hope loved to lounge around by the pool and soak up the sun, especially since Andie could cause drops of water to rise from the pool and come falling onto them like rain. It was during one of these lounges that they were called to a meeting with the professor. 

  
Andie groaned but pushed up from her chair anyway and she and Hope followed Kitty into the mansion, pulling on clothes as they went. When they got to the meeting room, everyone else had assembled, even Max who never showed up on time for a meeting, had beaten them there. 

  
"Now that you're all here," The professor held up a picture of a young man for all of them to see, "this is Ryan Walker. He lives in Orlando Florida. Three years ago he found that he had the same powers as Magneto's daughter Wanda. Unfortunately, he has no control over them, so he put a boy in the hospital and was taken to a lab by Stryker and one of his colleagues named George Dobson. We're going to get him out and bring him back here. I have an outline of the lab for you to follow." 

  
"How'd you manage to stumble across that?" Andie asked. 

  
"When Stryker was killed, we found some files that showed us quite a few labs that he had. This was one of them." Storm explained. 

  
"Are you gonna let some of the new students go?" Scott asked. 

  
"The only new students I am going to let go are Hope and Max." Xavier said. 

He showed them the outline and told them that they would head out that night. The team met in the launch room. Andie, Hope and Max were the newest members, and none of them had flown in the X-Jet before. Once inside, everyone strapped in. Max gripped the arms of his seat and tried not to look completely petrified. Hope glanced over and realized his fear. She put a hand on his arm. 

  
"You scared of flying?" She asked. 

  
"What? Scared of - no, no way, I ain't scared of nothin'." He gave her a cocky grin. The jet began to move forward and Max swallowed; his face went white. Andie reached back and patted him on the knee. 

  
"Not scared of flying huh Max?" 

  
"Don't worry," Hope reassured him. "I'm sure that Scott and Storm know what they're doing." 

  
The jet gained speed and shot out of the room, cutting into night sky. The moon cast its soft light all around them and the stars winked. They were above the clouds, far away from the earth and all it's problems, heartbreaks, and troubles. 

Max felt his heart slow and he relaxed back in his seat. No one spoke for a long while except for the occasional tid-bits from Scott to Storm or vice versa. Most of them could only stare out at the night sky. It brought Max back to the day he discovered his powers, one year ago. 

He had been in a kayaking accident that sent to the hospital with a concussion, a broken arm, some broken ribs, and his pride wounded. When he woke up, he had tried to call the nurse with the nurse button but it had short-circuited. Soon, he figured out that it had not just been an accident but that he could control and create electricity. When he couldn't touch people without electrocuting them, he decided to seek help. 

  
It had not been hard finding the Xavier institute. He knew his father hated mutants and, with a little poking and prodding, he found out about the Sentinel incident, which led him to the institute. After he contacted Professor Xavier, he pretended to leave for college, but in actuality left for the institute. Now, with the promise of a new future, he embraced all the adventures that awaited him, including Andrea Daugherty. 

She appeared to hang suspended just out of his league, but he intended to reach out and catch her. Why he felt so compelled to do so escaped him, but he still felt compelled. Maybe the mere fact that she ran from him so strongly was what made him want her all the more, or maybe he just plain liked her. He did not know, but he still intended to succeed.   
  



	14. Prove Your Worth

Chapter 14: Prove Your Worth

PLEASE Read and Review! 

***

"Stay sharp, we're coming up on the lab." 

  
Hope rubbed her eyes and yawned, the soft feeling of sleep settling to the ground. Beside her, Max stretched, scratched, and then grinned at her, his white teeth shining. She smiled back, shaking her head. Hope looked out the window and the moon stared back at her. 

"Same sky." 

  
"What's that?" Andie asked. 

  
"Oh, just some thing my mother used to say." 

  
"Okay you three, it's time to prove your mettle," Scott said turning back to Andie, Hope, and Max. 

  
Max grinned and rubbed his hands together, a gleam of excitement lighting his eyes. Blue electricity sparked from his hands. 

Andie pushed up from her seat and cracked her knuckles. 

Hope drew in a deep breath. 

Here goes. 

  
Once the jet hovered just over roof of the lab - the doors opened. One, two, three each hit the ground softly and ran to the door. Andie opened the map of the lab and they all gave it one last glance. 

"Ready Max?" 

  
Max nodded and put a hand to the wall. A sound like short-circuiting wires filled the night. 

"You have about ten minutes," Max said. "I can try to hold it longer but, we'll see." 

  
Andie liquidated and seeped slowly through the crack at the bottom of the door. When she stood up on the other side of the door she sighed with relief, the lights were off. She opened the door to let Hope in and then shut it quickly behind them. 

Hope blended into the walls. "Let's go." She said.   



	15. Escape

Chapter 15: Escape

PLEASE Read and Review! 

***

The sound of water trickling under his door made Ryan jerk from the floor. His head ached, as did every part of his body. In the dark he really thought he saw the water rise up and slowly solidify becoming a girl, but he knew it could not happen, it had to be the bump on his head. Then he heard a voice. 

  
"Ryan?" A tiny light turned on. 

  
A small girl stood in front of him. She had short white blond hair and she wore a leather body suit with teal flames on the stomach. Ryan's eyes went wide. "Who are- how'd you? I mean-" 

  
"No time to talk, just grab my hand, we're gonna try something," the girl said. 

  
"What?" 

  
She shook her head and held out a hand. "Just trust me." 

  
Ryan looked at it hesitantly, but then reached out and took it. The first soft hand he had felt in a long time. A rushing feeling like water flowed through his body. He looked over at the girl and his eyes bugged. 

She went completely transparent, like water. 

He looked down at his own arms and he felt himself sink to the ground. "Oh, my gosh." 

The tile floor slide past them as she pulled him along gently to the door, then, faster than he expected, they shot underneath it. It felt like going on a water ride and being shoved out of a tube by rushing water. Once they cleared to door they materialized again. "Wow, how did you-" 

  
"We're just like you Ryan," the girl said. 

  
Ryan looked down at his bare feet. "I sure hope not." 

  
She sighed. "I'm Andie and this is Hope." 

  
Ryan could not see in the dark, but someone squeezed his hand. Warmth that he had not felt in such a long time filled him. 

Hope, what an appropriate name, he thought. 

The sound of pounding feet filled their ears and at the end of the hall they saw a mammoth guard pass an exit sign. 

Hope grabbed their hands and the guard ran right by them. 

He opened the metal door, looked around with his flashlight, groaned, and ran back down the hallway yelling in his warlike talkie about the missing mutant. Once the circle of light disappeared, Hope let them go and turned to Ryan. 

  
"Can you walk?" Hope asked. 

  
"No time," Andie said. She grabbed Hope and Ryan's hands and shot off down the hallway at an amazing speed. Just as they reached the door, the lights flashed back on. 

Andie pulled them under the door and they sprang back up. 

  
"Nice timing," Max, laughed. 

  
Andie pushed him ahead of her and they ran to the center of the roof. 

A ladder dropped down from what looked like a bunch of clouds to Ryan. 

"You first kid," Andie said. 

  
"Look, I'm not sure-" 

  
She growled and shoved him to the ladder. Reluctantly he climbed. As they sped away from the lab, Ryan sighed. They have no idea what they are getting their selves into.   



	16. Falsely Accused

Chapter 16: Falsely Accused

PLEASE Read and Review! 

***

  
"Welcome to the Xavier institute, Ryan." Professor Xavier sat beside a very distraught young man who lay in a hospital bed. He had a broken arm and quite a few deep cuts that had been stitched up. 

  
"Professor, I really appreciate all that you've done for me but . . . I'm-I'm not safe. I belong back in that lab, under lock and key. Where I can't hurt anyone else." His voice came out quiet, strained. 

  
Professor Xavier smiled genuinely. "This institute is here to help you take control of your powers. I know what happened with Paul Dorsey. I know how you blacked out and you could not control what you were doing. But I can help you if you let me. Together, we can develop your gifts-" 

  
"Gifts! You call this a gift?!" Ryan shouted. His brown eyes grew wide and filled with tears. "I . . . I killed my whole family because of this gift!" He spat out the word like it tasted foul on his tongue. His hand went to his face. "I didn't mean to - if I hadn't blacked out . . . if I hadn't gotten upset . . . if I'd never gone back . . . " 

  
He felt a tingling in his head, like someone had put their fingers inside of it, like someone had gone in to search for answers. His mind went back to the first day he got his powers, the hot sensation of anger rising through his body, the very vague remembrance of causing inanimate objects to attack Paul Dorsey, Dobson and Stryker laughing at him, and then . . . Kael. After that blood filled his vision and for shame, for misery, he covered his face. 

A monster. 

  
You're not a monster Ryan, the professor's voice said in his head. You did not kill your family. 

  
Ryan looked up. 

How would you know? 

  
"Right after I found you with Cerebro I did a little research on you. I found out about what happened to your family. All the police records show that you killed them, but George Dobson's mind shows differently." Xavier said aloud. "I took a trip just before we rescued you and read his mind. It was he and Stryker who killed your family, not you."   



	17. Golden Boy

Chapter 17: Golden Boy

Please Read and Review! Sorry this has taken so long. As you all know, school is back in session. I hope you enjoy it. 

***

Recovery took a while for Ryan. 

Physically he healed quite fast, but his emotions would take longer, and would probably never fully heal. He also had a new desire for vengeance. 

Stryker died months before he even came to the institute, but Dobson still lived, and Ryan would not tolerate that. 

  
With a little more information, they found out that Lady Death Strike had guarded him and more than a few times took all her anger out on him. That explained the cuts. Even as the rest of his body healed and the pain forgotten, the scars remained a cruel reminder of the torture. Most of them were not visible but he had three across his right cheekbone and four on the back of his neck. But as much as Ryan hated the reminder, it helped him grow close to one of the hardest humans possible to get close to: Wolverine. They often joked about Lady Death Strike; trying to lighten the pain she had caused them together. Ryan envied Wolverine for getting the pleasure of killing her. 

  
However, Ryan did not just get along with Wolverine, he got along with everybody. No one could say a single bad thing about him, except that it took him a long time to learn how to control his powers. He cleaned up more than his share after every meal, always made time to talk to everyone, helped people with homework and chores, did much computer work with the professor, and even went to chick flicks if a girl didn't have anyone to go with. 

Max soon nicknamed Ryan "Golden Boy," or "Goldie," and it stuck. 

However, even though Ryan seemed to be healing, and had quickly jumped out of his shell, he still cowered when someone larger than he entered a room and he still winced when anyone raised a hand or their voice. He lived in the company of friends now, whereas he had lived so long in presence of enemies. It would take him a long time to realize that he could stop cowering and start fighting back.   



	18. Control Freak

Chapter 18: Control Freak

Please Read and Review! 

***

Max let his pen twirl around his fingers as he stared off into space. He yawned and sighed, readjusted in his seat, stretched, scratched, and shut his eyes. 

The golden light that poured from the windows warmed his face and made him feel very groggy. 

His eyes grew heavy and he tried to concentrate on the cloudy world that they flew over. On his tray table, the little cup of water formed a moat around its bottom and his uneaten food grew slowly colder by the minute. He knew it would probably be good to eat it, but his stomach stung and threatened to come up in his throat. Better not chance it, he thought. 

  
Why flying bothered him so much escaped him. Back home he would climb and repel off mountains, bungee jump, and do all sorts of crazy things. He even jumped off a waterfall once, but flying always made him shutter. Max would rather suffer countless hours in the back of a small car on a hot summer day with no air conditioning than have to ride in a plane. Over the years his fear had eased some. He could at least get on a plane without passing out now, but at a younger age no one would have dared to suggest flying to him. His mother could not even get him in the car to go the airport. She had taken him on one flight where he hyperventilated until he passed out before the plane had even left the ground. 

She never took him on another plane again. 

When she would ask him if he wanted to fly instead of drive he would cry and shake until she promised they would drive. His mother got so worried about him that she took him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist suggested that his fear was caused by a need for control, that all the other daring things he did made him feel somewhat more resolute, but flying did not. 

As he entered high school, however, the fear of flying dissipated with his desire for acceptance. He knew kids would tease him and so he started training himself to fly. It had not been easy, but soon he could do it. Still, in the back of his mind a voice constantly whispered to him, telling him that he had reason to be afraid. 

  
The plane quivered a little and Max dropped his pencil to grip the arms of his seat. Ryan nudged him in the ribs with his elbow and gave him a goofy grin. "You okay Max?"   
Max let out his air slowly and readjusted his cowboy hat. "I will be when we land on solid ground." 

  
"We'll be home in about ten minutes," Ryan said. "Don't sweat it. After today the next time you have to fly will be in the X-Jet." 

  
"Yeah, that's a whole lot safer." Max looked down at his steak and his stomach growled. 

For the first time he realized his hunger. 

Maybe just a little won't hurt, he thought. 

But just as he brought his fork to his mouth the stewardess' voice echoed through the room telling them to put their try tables back in their upright and locked positions. Max dumped his steak in the trash can sadly and put his tray table back up and prepared for the frightening decent.   



	19. Newbies

Chapter 19: Newbies

Please Read and Review! 

***

Andie stood in the living room surrounded by the students who could not go with them on the trip. They had gone to Washington for two months to discuss mutant rights with the government leaders. When she first got asked to go she had thought she would only go to watch, but on the plane Mr. McCoy had asked her to actually speak. He said it was because she had an incredible talent for speaking and persuasion, but Max said it was because she had a great body. 

She slapped him after that but laughed nonetheless. 

  
Just then, Kurt pushed through the crowd. He threw his arms around her and they hugged. Andie felt close and safe, just like she did when Asher hugged her, tight and strong. 

  
"Hey fuzz ball, I missed you," she said drawing back and giving him a warm smile. 

  
"I missed you to," Kurt said. "A lot's happened since you've been gone." 

  
"Really? Like what?" Andie asked. 

  
"I got a girlfriend," Kurt replied grinning widely. 

  
"Go fuzz-man!" Andie said punching him in the shoulder. "What's her power?" 

  
"No power, she's vhat you might call of the human persuasion," Kurt said sheepishly in his strong German accent. 

  
Andie narrowed her eyes looking at his fuzzy skin. "Then how do you kiss or touch or . . . anything?" 

  
"You assume she doesn't know about me," Kurt said arching an eyebrow. 

  
"That's awesome Kurt," Andie said. But then her face changed. "But now I have to be jealous. She's stealing you from me. You're not going to love me anymore!" Andie faked a sniffle and wiped away a nonexistent tear. 

  
Kurt laughed and motioned to the new recruits. "Andie, these are the newbies." 

  
"Well, don't be rude, Wagner - introduce me," Andie said removing a strand of hair from her face. 

  
"This is Christina, Anthony, Zeke, and Andrew." 

  
Andie went down the line shaking hands. Christina had long black hair, and when Andie shook her hand she smiled. 

"Firm grip." 

Andrew had brown hair and eyes that did not quite meet with hers. Andie squeezed his hand tightly and gave him a broad smile. 

Zeke also had brown hair and beautiful green eyes that looked strangely familiar. The warmth in his hand made her tingle. 

Then, she came to Anthony. He had platinum blond hair and deep blue eyes. The term "boy band" came to mind when she approached him. Give him a microphone and the picture would be complete. He towered a foot taller than Andie and she literally had to lean back to meet his eyes. 

Anthony smiled in a way that did not quite rub her correctly. He smiled a smile that Asher, had he been there, would have knocked right off his face. 

  
"What are you so happy about?" Andie asked: her hands perched on her hips. 

  
"Nothing, just admiring the new view." 

  
"I know Kurt is sexy, but it's still rude to stare," Andie shot back. She put an arm around Kurt. 

  
Anthony's blue eyes turned to slits and Andie could see his jaw tighten. She had to admit though: she found him very attractive. Another Gambit, she sighed. "What a cute baby," Andie said, pointing to the bubbly blond angel in his arms. 

  
"You like?" Anthony asked. "Take." He shoved the child into her arms and walked over to Jubilee. Andie could have sworn she heard thunder rumble. 

  
Andie adjusted the baby on her hip and smiled at it. "Your big brother doesn't want you." 

  
"Actually, it's Anthony's," Kurt said quietly. 

  
"Okay . . . " 

  
Max, Ryan, Hope and Bobby joined the group. From the moment Zeke laid eyes on Hope he could not take them off of her. She had him under a spell at first glance. But Kurt broke his trance and introduced them all. However, Zeke's gaze never left Hope. 

  
"So Andie, any luck finding your brother?" Kurt asked. 

  
Andie sighed, disappointed. "No, if a Daugherty doesn't want to be found he won't be found. I've gone to all sorts of companies that search and find missing loved ones, but nothing has turned up - period. The professor said that if I wanted to, he would use Cerebro." 

  
"Are you?" Kurt asked. 

  
"I haven't decided yet, I mean . . . maybe he doesn't want to be found. Maybe he doesn't want anything to do with me or my family." 

It was the saddest any of them had ever seen her before. Her eyes met only the ground, and even the corners of her usual smiling mouth sagged. Had she not been standing in the middle of a crowd, Ryan guessed that she would have cried right then and there. But she shook herself, shrugging off the pain, holding her mask up again. She would not let them see her cry.   



	20. Fire and Water

Chapter 20: Fire and Water

Please Read and Review! 

***

The sound of rushing water soothed Andie's troubled mind. All around her people chattered and laughed and hugged but the water lulled Andie into a peaceful state. The mall hardly seem the place to have this effect on anyone, but just standing on the second floor gazing down on the fountain, thinking of nothing else but the crystal water, Andie felt paradise. 

  
Hope, Max and Ryan had decided that she needed to go be a punk kid again and get away from her thoughts about her brother. So along with the "newbies," Kurt, Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, Jean and Scott they whisked her away to the Bayville Galleria. The boys and girls had split up after lunch due to conflict of interest, mostly because of Max and Anthony who seemed to share one too many things in common. 

  
Andie really liked the girls and appreciated their efforts to assuage her aching heart, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get Asher out of her head. All she wanted was to know that he was okay. She knew that he could take care of himself, but still, they did live in New York. 

  
At the moment, the other girls were all in one of the little stores to her left trying on goofy colored cowboy hats and sunglasses. She could hear their laughter from her spot by the rail, and a part of her wanted to join them, but another larger part wanted to stay near to something that really captured her mind, something that gave her a strange peace. 

Water. 

It seemed very strange to her that her brother would have the power to control fire and that she would have that to control water. At times she wondered if it were some kind of cruel joke, but maybe it was only symbolism. Maybe she would be the one to cool the flames of their broken family, and then maybe she could bring them together again. But why would she ever want to speak to her father again? He had been so cruel and closed-minded to Asher's power. 

Yes, he had accidentally burned down their house, but he could not stop himself - he had no control, like Ryan. If he had only tried to find help for Asher, if he had only listened. But she decided to stop worrying about the past, and set her eyes on the future.   



	21. Shopping Liaisons

Chapter 21: Shopping Liaisons 

Please Read and Review! 

***

Anthony strolled down the isles of the CD store searching for the new 50 Cent CD. It had just come out that day and he had to have it. When they had split up from the girls, he and Max had split off from the rest of the boys and shot for the CD store. Max had run off to the heavy metal section but Anthony had a mission. If only one CD existed on the planet, he would be the one to get it. Finally, he saw it at the very end of the shelf - the last CD. 

  
I'll have to thank Andie for having an emotional crisis right when she did, he thought and walked towards the end of the isle. 

Another young man had just entered the section but Anthony ignored him. They both reached for the CD at the same time. Their hands stopped and they looked up at each other, both sizing the other up. The other man towered over Anthony and had jet-black hair with hard eyes to match. Even at six two, Anthony had to look up. 

  
"Uh, dude, I saw that first," Anthony said, grabbing the CD from the shelf. 

  
"Just because you had your slimy hand on it doesn't mean you saw if first," the giant sneered. 

  
Anthony narrowed his eyes. "Look, Fezzik, my hand isn't slimy, and you don't know who you're dealing with." He wiped his hands on his pants self-consciously. 

  
The hard eyes went cold, but Anthony could see a fire growing in his eyes. "You know, it's kind of dangerous to mess around with mutants." He snapped his fingers and a small fire grew as if his hands were a lighter by them selves. 

  
Anthony laughed and crossed his arms. "What a coincidence." He said. Raising his hand he grabbed the flame from his opponents and it died. A cocky grin spread across his face. 

"Sorry, to disappoint you, Fezzik, I control the four elements, one being fire and that means that your power is worthless." 

  
"Can I help you gentlemen?" One of the store clerks stood at the opening of the isle, hands on hips and tapping her foot. 

  
"Back off!" They yelled in unison. 

  
Her jaw dropped and with a little sniffle she stomped away. 

  
Just then Christina came running down one end of the isle, but she couldn't stop. She slammed right into Anthony's back. He lurched forward and dropped the CD. With a sickening crack his foot crushed it, case and all. 

  
"Sorry," she said in a quiet voice. "I couldn't stop." 

  
They all stared down at the remains of the CD, mouths slightly agape. 

What irony. 

The focus of their fight was now completely demolished, and Anthony had been the one to do it. Max now entered the isle, and he could not help but grin. They all resembled fish. 

"Wow, what travesty happened here?" He asked. 

  
"He broke my CD!" 

  
"What?" Anthony shouted. "In the first place-" 

  
"I said go away!" They were cut short by the loud yell. 

No one had to think twice about whom it belonged to. Andie had a very distinct voice. Anthony turned and ran out of the store and everyone followed him, even the giant. Leaning against the balcony, a young man who obviously thought that no woman could ever resist him insistently rubbed Andie's arm trying to get close to her. Andie tried to shove him away, but he had a strong grip. Her face had twisted into a grimace and her fists had curled into balls. They could see her jaws tighten. 

  
"Come on baby," he said with a smile. "How can you reject me before you even know me?" 

  
Andie rolled her eyes and pushed again. "If you don't let go of me you are going to regret it." 

  
The young man shook his head. "And just what are you gonna do?" 

  
At that point, Anthony tapped him on the shoulder. "It's not what she's gonna do to ya it's what I'm gonna do to ya." 

  
"Oh, a guard dog. How sweet." 

  
"I can handle this myself, Anthony," Andie said. She really didn't mind though, it was nice to know he wasn't a total jerk. 

  
"Sure ya can, small one," Anthony replied. 

  
Andie's mouth dropped. "Well, I'm older than you-" 

  
"Well, I'm bigger." Anthony shot back. 

  
Andie stomped her foot exasperated. "You're impossible!" 

  
"Well, you're being ridiculous," Anthony said. "Not that I like you or anything, Andrea, but I don't want to see you get hurt. It's time to go, Ms. Daugherty." He grabbed her by her small arm and pulled her away from her offender. 

  
"Munchkin?" 

  
Andie stopped dead in her tracks, her blue eyes wide. She turned to face the voice and found herself staring up at the giant. 

"Jamie!" 

Her face brightened and she ran and threw her arms around his neck laughing like a little child. She dropped to the floor and punched him in the arm. 

"Okay mister where on God's green earth have you been? I've been searching forever and I find you in a mall of all places." 

  
A smile spread across his face. "Oh yeah, hey sis how are you? Good? So am I...thanks for asking! But you didn't ask did you? Because you were insensitive and yelled at me."   


Anthony's mouth dropped. "The ogre is your brother?" He asked. "Well I can see the family resemblance." 

  
"She calls you Jamie?" Andie's attacker asked. "Oh, James Asher Daugherty, I get it." 

  
"Yeah, who are you, and how do you know him," Andie asked. 

  
"Oh, I'm Sterling and we're in the Brotherhood." He said. 

  
Andie turned to her brother slowly. She did not want to believe what she had just heard. Please no, she begged. Asher could not be on the enemy's side; everything was supposed to end happily - all the storybooks said so. "You're . . . part of the Brotherhood?" Her blue eyes already watered. 

  
"Is that a problem?" He asked slowly. 

  
Sterling stepped beside Asher. "Why? You gonna do something about it?" 

  
Andie stepped back for a moment trying to breath. 

My brother. 

The enemy. 

Her world shook on it's edges, threatening to come crashing down on top of her. The one solid foundation in her life had just unhinged. Why did it have to happen this way? Andie's hands shook and she put a hand to her mouth for a moment, then she turned back to Asher. 

"You can't be in The Brotherhood." She said. The hard-set tone of her voice implicated that she would not budge on the matter, but Asher had no intention of moving either. 

  
Asher's eyes came together and he let out a huff. "Uh, last time I checked, I am the oldest, thus the smartest, and if I-" 

  
"Smartest, pah!" Andie crossed her arms and tapped her foot. 

  
Max chuckled under his breath. She looked like a mom looming over her dirt-covered child, waiting for an explanation. 

  
"Yes, smarter." Asher said. 

  
Andie's eyes went soft again. Her arms dropped to her sides. Time for a change of tactics. "Asher," she whined. "Why . . . the Brotherhood is just a group of lazy, lamo, self-pitying, self-centered, losers with no leadership and no focus. You're better than that!" 

  
"Hey!" Andie's eyes popped as Pietro Maximoff appeared in their group as if he'd been teleported. "We're not self-pitying losers, and I'm their leader so back off." 

  
"As I said, no leadership - oh wait, correction - bad leadership." Andie shot back. 

  
Pietro glared at the small girl in front of him. She met his gaze with her eyebrows raised and her hands on her hips as if to say "bring it on." 

"Listen, Andrea, why don't you just go do your nails and hair like normal girls do?" 

  
Andie put her hand in his face. "I'm not talking to you anymore. We're done." She pointed at Asher with her other hand. "Now, back to you, mister." She sounded like a little girl who had been left out of a game. 

  
But the conversation had not ended for Pietro. No one stuck a hand in his face. He grabbed Andie by the wrist. "Get that hand out of my-" 

  
Before he even finished his sentence, he found himself staring up Andie. Her blue eyes almost glowed with anger and her jaw had set again. 

I wasn't fast enough, he thought. This is the second time I wasn't fast enough. My world is coming to an end. Pietro turned to look at his teammates. 

Sterling's eyes glowed yellow and a feral growl had started in his throat. 

  
"Andie, I think you should just go," Asher said. 

  
"I've searched for you for five years and this is the reaction I get?" Andie's voice flowed soft, like the river. She felt the tears come to her eyes but she inhaled deeply, driving them away. 

  
"I didn't ask you to look for me-" 

  
"But I did. Asher, you're my brother, and I love you." 

  
"Aw, ain't that nice," Sterling said with a roll of his eyes. 

  
"Andie, I've moved on. I'm not the same person I was back there. I can't be your big brother anymore. You think you can just drop in and tell me how to live my life? You don't even know what I've been through." 

  
Andie did not respond. She let go of Pietro's arm and continued looking at Asher. If her heart had broken, he could not see it on her face. It had turned to ice, completely set in a hard immovable look, unwilling to let anything melt it away. Her body showed no sign of a struggle to control her emotions for it had frozen over too. She swallowed and stepped over Pietro towards Anthony and Max. 

"You want to be alone again? Well, fine." She ripped the locket he had given her from around her neck and threw it on the ground near his feet. 

Suddenly, she grabbed Anthony by the shirt, yanked him down the whole fourteen inches to her level and kissed him, right in front of everybody. She felt a startling cool sensation that made her heart jump, and she almost could not believe what she had just done. 

Andie had never kissed a guy before. 

She let him go and harnessed her thrashing emotions. "Let's get out of here." Andie walked to the stairs while Anthony stood for a moment with a dumb look plastered to his face. 

  
Asher narrowed his eyes and glared at Anthony. The coals had gone colder than before. Anthony put his hands up. "Hey, she kissed me." He stopped. "She kissed me." A smiled touched his lips. He turned and followed Andie down the stairs. 

Score, he thought. 

  
Pietro stood rubbing his back and shrugged. "I guess this would be a good time to mention that your sister's a mutant and that she's one of the fruitilicious X-Geeks." He said. 

  
Asher bent down, picked up the locket, and walked away.   



	22. Can Guys and Girls Just Be Friends?

Chapter 22: Can Guys and Girls Just Be Friends?

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

Andie chewed on her knuckle as she walked down the hallway. 

Three hours ago, she had stormed into the mansion and locked herself in the bathroom claiming that she had to take a shower. She spent that time smoothing out her rumpled emotions and masticating her hair. Before her shower time it had just curled under her chin. Now it stuck out of the top of her head. That's what happened when she got angry - she had to destroy or change something, and seeing that she could destroy nothing, she went for her hair. 

  
She passed a mirror in the hall and her reflection caught her attention. Swollen skin surrounded her blue eyes and her pink lips drooped at the corners. Now that she had calmed down she decided that she really did not like her hair that short, she looked more like a guy. She grimaced but she could not go back now. A heavy sigh rushed out of her mouth and she turned from the mirror, trudging on to her destination. When she got there, she glanced around and then knocked on the wooden door. 

  
Anthony pulled it open and his eyes bugged. "What did you do to yourself?" He asked. "It looked like you took an edger to your head." 

  
Andie crossed her arms. "I was distraught, would you like me to go distraught on you?" 

  
Anthony grabbed his curls and backed away. "That's really okay." 

  
She rubbed her nose and put a hand to her head self-consciously. "Look, I just wanted to apologize for what I did in the Mall today. I used you for my own selfish gain, and I was wrong." 

  
"Feel free to use me any time you want," Anthony said grinning. 

  
Andie punched him in the arm. "I'm trying to be serious here, Anthony Schamaluffel." 

But she smiled anyway. 

It felt good to do so, no use in crying over Asher anymore. 

He had rejected her. 

She had no big brother. 

"Oh, and thanks for coming to my rescue with Sterling. I could have taken him, but it was sweet anyway." 

  
"So," Anthony said leaning closer. "Do you wanna use me right now?' 

  
Andie rolled her eyes and gave him a little shove. "Don't push your luck buster, you got my first kiss, so be happy with that . . . " She put a hand to her mouth trying to stop the words that had already come out. How could she have had reveled something so personal about herself? They had shared a kiss, but still, she really did not even know him. 

  
"Huh," Anthony said, his lips curving into a smile. "Not bad for a first-timer." 

  
"I'm gonna let that one fly tonight because you stood up for me today, but you might not be so lucky next time." Andie replied. She turned to leave, but then she looked back. "Not bad?" 

  
Anthony laughed, shook his head, and shut his door. 

Andie stood in the hallway for a moment. 

Nice guy? 

Jerk? 

Come on Andie, she said to herself. 

He's got a kid. 

That should be a red flag yelling for you to stay away. 

But still, he who has no sin cast the first stone. How 'bout his crude remark when he first met you, huh? Enjoying the new scenery, wasn't that what he said? Andie started walking down the hallway to the stairs, and her mind continued to argue with her. He did stick up for you at the mall today. However, he left you hanging in the hallway just now even though you asked him a question. Okay Andie, stop being an emotional girl. Emotions only get you hurt. 

Be his friend. 

You're friends with Max, and if you can be friends with Max you can be friends with any guy. Guys and girls can be friends, right?   



	23. Trask

Chapter 23: Trask

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

George Dobson's fingers hit the top of the glass table one by one and he stared at Peter Hackman, his head guard. Each time a finger hit the desk, Hackman flinched. He knew he messed up, but he still could not figure out exactly how the whole thing happened. The lab had blacked out around 11: 30, and when no one could get the electricity to come back on he, ran down to mutant # 509's cell, only to find the room empty. Hackman did not understand how the mutant could have possibly escaped. Before the blackout, he remembered personally locking all the doors and one needed the password to turn off the alarm system. 

  
A heavy sigh hissed from between Dobson's lips. The desk chair whined as he eased back and put his thumb and pointer finger on his chin. Ever since Stryker's death problems popped up right and left. First, Yuriko died along with Stryker, then Ryan escaped, and then, they found most of their files in Canada missing. Dobson felt extremely jaded of it all. Maybe I need a new partner, he thought. That certainly would make life a bit less complicated. 

But who could he find? 

Many people hated mutants, but not as many believed as adamantly as he did that they needed to wipe them from the face of the earth. The decision needed careful thinking and careful choosing. The X-Men will pay for this, Dobson thought. No one crosses me. He rubbed his tight jaw. Who hated mutants as much as Stryker? Who wanted to go to all ends to destroy them? Whose imagination matched that of Stryker's? 

  
A smile plumped Dobson's thinning cheeks and the chair moaned again as he sat up straight. Hackman shivered at the sudden change of mood he saw in his boss's face. When Dobson's mood changed rapidly, Hackman always felt a sense of foreboding. A plan now formed in that man's mind, one that predicted more loss, one that only dug the man deeper into his grave alongside Stryker. 

  
"Hackman, hold the fort down while I'm gone," Dobson said. "I have to go visit Mr. Trask."   



	24. Happy Fathers Day!

Max Trask slipped the off-white phone from its cradle and held it to his ear by the very top. He stared at a man who looked as hard as the glass he sat behind. Red veins swirled to his eyes which looked dim, even compared to his bland skin. White hairs assaulted his dark brown eyebrows and below his pointed nose only a thin black line of a mouth remained. The man sighed but pulled the phone to his own ear. He said nothing.

"What's up pop?" Max asked.

"What are you doing here Max?" His father asked.

Max rolled his eyes. "Ah, don't be stupid, you know why I'm here." He propped up the little Happy Birthday card up against the window with his left hand and gave him a lop-sided grin.

His father's face did not change, but a sharp breath rushed out of his nose and he rubbed his forehead. "Well, these stupid people seem to think I committed some crime against humanity when I was actually helping it against these freaks," he huffed. "Mutants. They're the ones who keep me away from my son, it's all their fault."

The room grew cold and Max shivered. He felt something sink and die inside of him. The fact that his father despised mutants never crossed his mind. He shook his head at his own stupidity. "Dad…mutants didn't put you here, **you** tried to kill them and almost killed thousands of people in the process. It's your own fault." He tried to say the words lightly but the came out harsh and hot. Max felt personally wounded.

His father's eyes darkened and his brows came together in a V shape. "So my own son's defending them. My own son's a mutant-lover, huh? That makes you a sick as they are-"

"Dad they're not sick!" The thread of patience unraveled as he spoke. "What they have is a gift, I know…some have the power to heal people just by touching them, Dad…think of how great that is?"

"And what about the one's who can walk through walls, or control people's minds? What about them?" His father shouted.

Max groaned. "Dad. Okay what about the wrong person with a gun in his hand?"

"Different-"

"No, It's not a different situation!" The thread snapped. "Dad…I can't even talk to you. No matter what I say it won't change the fact that you're the most stubborn man in the whole world." The chair screamed as Max hung up the phone, stood and pushed it away. He threw the card down on the table and turned to go. But he stopped, turned, and yelled into the phone; "By the way Dad, I'm one of them- I'm a freak too. Happy Birthday!" He put the phone back in its cradle and walked to the door. As he exited he pointed his finger to the exit sign. Blue waves of electric current shot from it and the light died. The door slammed shut behind him.


	25. Apocalyptic Alliance

Chapter 25: Apocalyptic Alliance 

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

Max flung the door to his and Ryan's room open, forgetting the hour of night. All the light from the hall covered Ryan, who lay on the floor with his comforter hugged tightly around him. Even in the stark light he did not budge from his position. Max jogged over and knelt down next to his friend. He put a hand on Ryan's arm and shook him. Ryan's hand shot out and Max fell onto his back, his cowboy hat skidded across the ground. White lights danced above his head on the ceiling. 

"Wow, stars." 

  
"Oh man Max, I'm sorry, I didn't know…dude are you okay?" Ryan now bent over Max. His brown eyes grew big and his eyebrows came together. 

  
Max put his hands up and grinned. "Dude, I'm fine." He sat up. "Look's like you fell out of bed. You okay?" 

  
Ryan looked down and his ears reddened. 

  
"Ryan?" 

  
"I didn't fall, I uh, guess I'm just used to sleeping on the ground. I do it every night after you go to bed." 

  
"Oh. I get it. It's the whole Count of Monte Cristo thing." 

  
Ryan laughed. "Yeah. So how's your dad?" 

  
Max's face sagged. He reached over and picked up his hat. He then walked over to his bed and sunk into it. "My Dad…and I…are probably no longer on speaking terms. He hates mutants and…I decided to tell him that I was one." The hat spun in the air and landed on the bedpost, a perfect toss. "I'm probably dead to him." 

  
Ryan slapped him on the back and sat on his own bed. "He sounds like Stryker or Dobson." He shook his head. "Man, Dobson and Trask together would be the Apocalypse, at least for mutants." 

  
A shiver ran up Max's arms and back, but he grinned at his friend. "I hear ya. Maybe we should knock on wood just in case." 

  
They both laughed. But inside, they both felt the fear. Trask and Dobson shared a strong hatred for mutants and neither cared about the consequences of their actions regarding mutants. If they joined forces an Apocalypse might occur.   



	26. PMS

Chapter 26: PMS

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

The hallway looked fuzzy as Ryan made his way down to breakfast. The thought of skipping the morning meal crossed his mind when he lay in bed not five minutes ago, but the smell of pancakes overrode the idea completely. As usual Max still lay in bed begging for sixty more minutes. For him, not even the smell of pancakes gave him enough reason to rise at 8:30 on a summer Monday. 

  
Ryan nearly face-planted at the bottom of the stairs but strong arms caught him. He looked up into Christina Carter's deep blue eyes. His ears warmed as he straightened and rubbed the scars on the back of his neck and grinned at her. "Thanks, just don't let anyone know a girl had to save me from a broken nose." 

  
Christina blushed. "Don't worry, I won't let your male pride be wounded." 

  
They both laughed nervously. Ryan felt his heart beat step up a notch and he licked his lips. "Uh, guess we'd better get to breakfast, huh?" 

  
"Yeah, let's go." 

  
Ryan wanted to kick himself. Why did he get this way around some girls? Why did they make him so nervous? Andie never made him feel this way, but when Christina or Jean or Kitty or Hope, especially Hope, entered the room he turned into a babbling stuttering moron. Max did not have this problem, so why did he? 

  
The smell of pancakes satiated Ryan's nose as the pushed they swinging door open and entered the kitchen. Everyone sat nice and civilized in their seats talking at an indoor level and asking for the other students to pass the food in their direction. The explanation for their unusual behavior sat at the head of the table: Wolverine. 

  
Ryan plopped down in the vacant in between him and Kurt. Across from him sat Scott and Jean. "Good morning Claws," he said to Logan reaching for the plate of pancakes. If anyone else called Logan "Claws" he would receive the death stare. However, when Ryan referred to his as Claws he considered it an affectionate gesture. 

  
"'Morning," Logan replied. He glanced over the rim of his coffee cup. 

  
Soft brown liquid drizzled over Ryan's mountain of peanut buttered pancakes. He grinned with a small twinge of excitement. Pancakes reminded him of Sunday mornings before church with his family. They only ate pancakes on Sunday's because they only got to eat together as a family then. Candy and Pancakes meant the same thing to Ryan. He brought the fork to his mouth and the treat disappeared inside. Heaven. 

  
Ryan gazed around the table. Three seats lacked occupants, Max's, Gambit's, and oddly, Andie's. Andie never missed breakfast. She always said breakfast got her through the day. But after yesterday afternoon he did not expect her to even leave her bedroom. But as his eyes passed the window he saw a small figure running along the fence. He strained his eyes to see. Andie. He knew because at the moment he saw her she raised her hand above her head and water came down, soaking her face. 

  
"What is she doing?" Ryan asked. 

  
Jean glanced out the window and her eyebrows wrinkled the skin between them. "I saw her get up early this morning, I think she'd trying to let out her anger about her brother," she said. 

  
Ryan shook his head and shoved another bite into his mouth, the syrup dripped down the corner. "Man, I can't even guess how hard that must be." He stopped and licked the brown stickiness off. 

  
"Vell she's nuts," Kurt said. "But that's vhy we love her, eh?" 

  
The door to the kitchen swung open and Andie, red and huffing, flew in. She plopped down at the other end of the table next to Hope and Anthony and speared a pancake with her knife. Without a word, she peanut buttered her it and sliced it up. Everyone at the table started at her, trying not to look like they were. Her eyes never once left her food. 

  
"How are you this morning Andie?" Hope asked. 

  
"Fine, you?" 

  
"Good," Hope replied slowly. 

  
Andie smiled and returned to her meal. But she did not eat; she just shoved the soggy pancake around in its sticky pool. 

  
Soon, conversations sprouted all along the table. Most of the students loved Andie, but they also knew her, and decided not to bother her when she did not to want to be bothered. However, some students did not know her and among those students included Anthony. After witnessing her experience with Asher and seeing the hurt in her eyes, he wanted to butt in and find out what troubled her. 

  
He leaned over and asked quietly, "Andie, are you suffering from PMS or are you still moping?" 

  
A sharp pain shot through his shin and he looked up at Kurt who shook his head violently and mouthed the word "no" fiercely. 

Andie slammed the butt of her knife on the table and smiled as sweetly as she could possibly muster. "I'm perfectly fine, thank you for being so sensitive to my feelings. How nice of you to ask Mr. Schamaluffel." She picked up her plate, threw it in the sink and disappeared from the room. 

  
"Dude, it vas nice knowing you." Kurt said. 

  
"Well somebody had to say it," Anthony said. 

  
Ryan laughed and stood to put his plate away. "You're sure not the sharpest knife in the drawer are you?" 

  
"No certainly not the sharpest, but sharper than you pretty boy." Anthony said. 

  
Blue soap covered the syrupy plate and Ryan scrubbed it clean. He dried it, put it up in the cabinet, and started to follow Andie's lead out the door. 

  
"Hey, did I say you could leave?" Anthony asked. "Yeah, no, come back." 

  
Ryan stopped for a moment with his back to the table. Slowly he faced them, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned, but he did not step any nearer to the table. Everyone else in the room remained dead quiet, even Logan watched intently. 

They all held their breath. 

If Ryan lost control he could knock Anthony on his face before anyone even blinked.   
He raised his eyebrows. "Yes?" 

  
"No, shut up, I'm talking," Anthony said. "Look dude, I'm raising my daughter pretty much by myself, and during that time I've been through hell and back. I've seen more, done more, and experienced more that someone like YOU has ever thought of. Don't try to tell me I'm unintelligent. You may be book smart dawg, but I'm street smart. Mr. Ryan Walker, the preppy prince of the Xavier Institute. The kid with no problems and a perfect life. Don't be dumping on me like you think you're better than me." 

  
Hope squirmed in her seat. Anthony obviously did not know Ryan's story. She wanted to get up and smack him around a bit in her camouflaged state. No Hope, she said. He just needs to be set straight. But Ryan spoke just as she opened her mouth. 

  
He sighed and continued to rub his neck. "You're right, I shouldn't have dumped on you like that. I don't think you're unintelligent I was just joking. Sorry, dude." Before anyone else spoke he left the room. 

  
Anthony narrowed his eyes. "Yeah that's right, go on…" he continued to mumble hotly and dropped back down into his seat. 

  
"Dude, that vas harsh." Kurt said. He could barley believe what just happened, especially when Ryan apologized and left. If Anthony said that to him he would have gone off. 

  
"Well the kid needs to toughen up," Anthony growled. "He's a pansy." 

  
"No see, first of all he's older than you, second of all…" Kurt paused and shook his head. "Never mind I shouldn't tell you." 

  
"Tell me what?" 

  
"No really, it's not my place," Kurt said. 

  
"TELL ME, or there's going to be blue, fuzzy, guts on the table!" Anthony said standing. 

  
"You'd have to catch me first." Kurt said. Bamf! In a blue puff of smoke he vanished. His fork clanked to the table. 

  
Anthony glared at everyone around the table. "Did he just ignore my question? I'm going to his room." The table jolted as he stood and ran out of the kitchen. 

  
"Someone pass the syrup." Hope said quietly.   



	27. A Bit of Truth

Chapter 27: A Bit of Truth

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
Just a Kurt appeared in his room the door swung open and banged against the wall. Anthony grabbed Kurt before he could bamf again. "Alright Wagner what are you going to tell me?" 

  
"Okay, just let me go first." 

  
Anthony shook his finger in front of the blue face. "No, talk." 

  
"You know those scares on the back of his neck and face?" Kurt asked. "You know how he got those?" 

  
""I don't really care." Anthony said. 

  
"Oh, then ve don't have to talk anymore," Kurt said grinning. He tried to pull away. 

  
"No elf, you're gonna tell me." 

  
Kurt sighed and explained to Anthony all about Ryan's experience with Stryker, Dobson, and Lady Death Strike, about how they killed his family, and how he thought for three years that he had done it. 

  
"And that's my problem how?" Anthony said. "It's not my fault the kid's powers go ballistic." 

  
"Vell, he didn't kill his family if that's vhat you mean." Kurt said. "You vere the one who vanted to know, I'm just the messenger." 

  
"Well…. regardless, he still shouldn't have insulted me." 

  
Kurt shrugged. "He did apologize, I mean, he could have fried you right where you stood." 

  
"No, he couldn't have. Because I control every element under the sun, anything he threw at me I could throw back at him," Anthony huffed. He crossed his arms over his big chest. 

  
"No actually-" But Kurt stopped. Maybe he shouldn't tell Anthony anymore, he shouldn't have to told him what he did in the first place.   



	28. Controller of the Tongue

Chapter 28: Controller of the Tongue

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
Ryan's fingers hit the keys of the Danger Room computer hard and fast. He felt the burning flow through his body and his throat tighten. Don't get mad, he told himself. Anthony was right, I should be more careful about what I say to people, especially one I don't know well. But no matter what he conjured up to say to himself he still felt injured, a victim yet again of another's uncontrolled, unwarranted anger. Why did this always happen to him? He never picked a fight with anyone. His stupid tongue and temper always got him in trouble. 

  
He who masters the tongue has control over the whole body, he shook his head. 

Impossible. 

How can anyone know what will offend everyone and avoid it? Well face it kid you messed up and there's no use in acting like a victim. You so deserved to get chewed out. 

  
"Dude, you okay?" 

  
The chair zipped from under Ryan and pain shot through his lower back as he landed on the floor. He looked up at Zeke and shook his head. "Man, I didn't even hear you come in here," he said as the other helped him up. 

  
"I repeat my previous question, you okay?" 

  
"Oh yeah sure, I deserved that back there," Ryan said, half lying. 

  
"Wow, you don't have to lie to me man, everyone knows you didn't deserve what you got. Anthony's full of hot air." 

  
Ryan shook his head. The burning cooled in his veins and he slowly forgave Anthony for his words. "No, no I think he was right, what I said at least made me sound like I thought I was better then him." His own words actually made sense and affected him now. 

Anger did not help any situation at all; it only made things worse. He looked at it from Anthony's side. He's probably been called a stupid kid all his life, what with his having a daughter 'n all, Ryan speculated. That's probably a very touchy issue with him. So what I said got him mad. Whether or not he's too sensitive has nothing to do with anything. He grinned. The burning stopped and his vision cleared. He turned back to his computer and continued to type. 

  
"So what are you workin' on?" Zeke asked. 

  
"Oh yeah, the last time Andie, Max, Hope and I were in the Danger Room I noticed that one of the machines had a small glitch in it, which caused it to frits out way too easily, so I'm fixing it to be more efficient. And I have a few surprise programs for our next session." 

  
"So you write all the programs," Zeke said. 

  
"No not all of them, just a few. Like the one that can pick up invisible boy." He laughed. It made him sound like a super hero with a dorky name. "I'm also writing in the new additions to the Brotherhood. Of course that brings up an emotional point with Andie. I don't know what she'll do when she runs across the Asher program." 

  
"Well I'd say one of two things, break down and cry, or forget about the team and go after it. The latter seems more likely, but she'll have to take him on one of these days right?" 

  
Ryan leaned back in his chair and rested his head on his hands. His eyes scanned the picture of Asher and then the physical traits written beside him. 6'5, a whole five inches taller than he. Controls and creates fire. 

No problem. 

Although, no one's power matches mine really. I can just take it away with a snap of my fingers so to speak. Oh great, now I'm conceited. He grinned and clicked off the screen. The chair mumbled across the floor and he slapped Zeke on the back as he walked to the door. 

  
"Where you goin'?" Zeke called after him. 

  
"Me 'n God need to have a little chat in private," Ryan said over his shoulder. "See ya later."


	29. Training

Chapter 29: Training

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
Beads of lukewarm sweat darkened the blue mat below Andie's face. Fire ran up the muscles in her arms, back, and stomach. The blood bloated her face, but she held herself still. Across the room the double doors opened and a monstrous figure stepped out of the dark hallway. 

Andie remained. 

  
Logan shoved his massive hands into the pockets of his hooded jacket and leaned his head to one side. "What cha' doin' monkey?" His voice shoved out like tires against gravel. It bounced off the walls of the gym. 

  
"Training." 

  
The bushy eyebrows came together and he nodded his head. His mouth turned up slightly. "Training to face your brother?" 

  
The mat exhaled as Andie collapsed. She stood and crossed her arms. "I don't have a big brother anymore." All of her face agreed with her words, except her eyes. Her lips flattened across her face and her eyebrows remained apart. From her big blue eyes no tears came. But the lids drew father away then normal and they seemed bluer than usual. 

  
"I can train you." 

  
Now the eyebrows came together. 

  
"At one point in my life I studied the ways of the ninja and the Samurai; I can teach you," he said. 

  
Andie nodded. 

  
Logan reached out a hand and she took it. All of her hand disappeared but her thumb. Suddenly, Andie's legs shot out in front of her and she landed with a dull thud on the blue mat. Air whooshed out of her lungs and she coughed. For the first time in a long time she found herself staring up into the light blue eyes of her new trainer. 

  
Andie heard crackling noises as Logan squatted down beside her. "First lesson," he said. "Never let your guard down." 


	30. Second Chances

Chapter 30: Second Chances

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
A cold rush of air pushed back the thin hair on Dobson's forehead as he pushed open the metal door. His shoes tapped across the grungy tile floor and bits of hair and dirt scurried away from his feet. The legs of the chair protested as he pulled it under his heavy body. He lifted the phone from the hook with his thumb and forefinger, then held it just close enough to his ear to hear and be heard. 

  
"Mr. Trask, I'm gonna give you a second chance."   



	31. Innocent Kiss

Chapter 31: Innocent Kiss

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
Hope stared at the brown oak door in front of her. She chewed on her lip and raised her hand to the door, fingers facing the wood. Her hand hovered in front of it, as if it had lost communication with the brain. Finally, her fingers drummed quietly against the door.   
Big, brown, puppy eyes met hers as the massive piece of wood swung out of the way. 

"Hope. Hey what's up?" Ryan asked. An enormous smile overtook his lips but he felt heart beat kick it up a notch. The "Amazonian Queen", as Zeke had described her, stood before him with all confidence surrounding her like attendants. 

  
"Um, this morning when…Anthony chewed you out…I uh, I just wanted to see if you were okay." She asked. 

  
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. He had every right to be angry." 

  
Hope shook her head. Her black hair rolled into her face. "You're…rather different," she said. 

  
Ryan put a large hand on the back of his neck and his eyebrows met upwards in the shape of a mountain. "How do you mean?" 

  
Hope cocked her head. "Most people would not have taken what he said to you. You were clearly being sarcastic and-" 

  
"And sarcasm always has, or seems to have, an element of truth." Ryan said. 

  
The Queen's pink lips rolled inward. She did not know what to say to this. Hope did not know how to defend someone who did not want a defender. Ryan refuted every argument she came up with, and the arguments were in his defense. 

What a man! 

He did not have low self-esteem, he simply understood a human beings downfalls, he was humble. Warmth flooded her veins and a smile burst forth. Before she knew what she was doing, Hope leaned forward and touched her lips to his. All the hallways seemed to fill with electric sparks. The picture behind her fell from the wall and landed with a crash. They sprung apart at the noise and looked down at the now ruined masterpiece. 

  
"Ooops." Ryan said. 

  
Hope turned back to him. Her face burned. She smiled a nervous smile. "Sorry..." she said. 

  
"So am I." Ryan replied. 

  
Hope looked down at her feet. But then, she felt his large hands on her shoulders. They closed over them completely and she looked up. 

  
"I'm sorry because I should have done it first." He bent forward. 

  
Hope lost herself in his kiss.   
  



	32. Redeemed

Chapter 32: Redeemed 

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
"What? But it's not my week to watch her! No...no...look- No!" 

  
Ryan stood in the doorway to the living room. 

Anthony stood in front of the bay windows with his cell phone to his ear. The sun bounced off his blond curls creating a halo around his head, but his face twisted and tensed. He put a hand to his head and rubbed it with his eyes squeezed shut. 

"Okay....okay. Fine!" The phone beeped off and hit the wall with such force that it's insides spilled out onto the floor. Anthony stared at it for a moment just shaking his head. Ryan kept his mouth shut. He watched as Anthony's body gathered up into one mass of muscle. With his jaw set, he bent down and picked up the broken phone. 

  
Ryan took a deep breath and walked into the room, hands in his pockets. "You okay dude?" 

  
Anthony looked up, narrowed his eyes, then looked back down at the mess in his hands. "No as a matter of fact." Steam drifted off his frozen words. For a moment they just stood in the silence. Ryan did not know what to say to him. He knew that Anthony did not want pity, but he wanted to make amends somehow. 

  
But Anthony started to speak before Ryan even had a chance to think of what to say. "I just can't understand Caroline. In the beginning she was all about taking turns with Grace blah, blah, blah, but no, this weekend she just had to go to a concert, a concert that I wanted to go to, that I had front row tickets to. FRONT ROW TICKETS! So not only do I have to miss the concert, but I have to sit at home with Grace three weekends in a row." He stopped and looked up from his dead phone. "I have no idea why I just told you that." 

  
Ryan grinned. "Hey. I'll watch Grace." 

  
"You, want to watch my kid? How can I be sure that while I'm gone you won't go malignant on her?" Anthony asked. 

  
"Now wait, I didn't say I wanted to watch her, I just said I would." Ryan repeated. 

  
"Okay, but once you take her you must be careful, she's big, strong, and the jealous type." 

A luminous grin plumped his cheeks. Anthony walked to the door, but then turned. 

"You're not a pretty boy jerk like I thought." 

  
Ryan laughed. "Thanks...I think." And thankyou God.   



	33. Promise

Chapter 33: Promise 

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
The baby giggled with delight as she bounced up and down on Ryan's knee. Her blue eyes disappeared as she laughed and her chubby checks dimpled. Ryan laughed along with her, but memories pushed their way into his mind and they took him on a ride back to the past. 

He saw his back yard. The giant tree reached up to the blue sky and in its branches he climbed into a small wooden house. It smelled of new wood and rain. Pine needles and footprints made of dirt decorated the floor. In a box in the corner, army men, toy cars, and dinosaurs rested, awaiting the life that Ryan and his brothers and sometimes his sisters would give them. Light poured from the window above them and every once in a while would catch a shiny surface and blind Ryan momentarily. 

  
He turned to face the latter and that was when he saw Kael. He watched himself help the five year old up into their haven, their safe haven. Why could they not have stayed there? Far from the problems of mutants and humans, far from hurt, and death, and pain. Why did Kael have to die? 

  
The baby had stopped laughing and Ryan looked down into those beautiful, sleepy blue eyes. Eyes like Kael's. They were not dark and brown, but they were still the same. They contained so much innocence, so much purity, so much excitment that one looses as they get older. Ryan pulled the child to his chest and rubbed her back gently. He looked to the ceiling though not at it. He looked beyond it, to the heavens. 

  
"Now I know what you want me to do," he said aloud. And he made a promise in his heart. He would not let the innocent suffer because of the sins of others. As long as he remained standing he would use his power to defend people. He had failed Kael, but he would not fail anyone else.   



	34. Reflection

Chapter 34: Reflection

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

Andie stood in front of her full length mirror. The girl that stared back at her grimaced at her. Blond white hair stuck up out of her head and though her body rolled downward in soft curves it did not look long and slender. Her appearance had never bothered her until recently, most of the time she simply did not care. But for some reason today it seemed very old, commonplace, jaded. She slumped down on the floor, put her head on her knees and hugged them. Why did she feel this way? Why did she have to feel so...ugly? Suddenly, she wanted someone to hold her. She wanted nothing else in the whole world except for someone to hold her. To feel the massive arms around her, to feel safe, to feel  
like she did not have to protect herself but to have someone protect her. The desire hit her so hard that she could not breath. The warm tears flooded her face. Stop acting so weak kiddo, she thought. You're alone now, so deal with it.  



	35. Boys Night Out

Chapter 35: Boys Night Out

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

The world took a strange turn for Ryan the next weekend, and it all started when Anthony invited him to a "boys night out". The very fact that he had been invited confused him, but that Anthony had been the one to do it shocked him beyond belief. Even after the unselfish act he had performed he did not expect such quick forgiveness. Every week a good chunk of the boys went out to a club and partied all night. Under usual circumstances Ryan would have declined the offer, but then he realized the havoc they could wreak and decided to be somewhat of a chaperone. Around nine o'clock Max, Anthony, Ryan, Gambit, Kurt, Bobby, Roberto, and Ray all pushed their way through the crowd and smoke to a table in the back corner. Ryan grimaced at the smell and asked himself for the hundredth time why he had come. He felt trapped and smothered. 

"Hey, hey, hey," Max said breaking Ryan's thoughts. "The honnies are lookin' hot tonight."

  
"As long as you pick well all will go well if you know what I mean," Gambit said nudging him in the ribs. "Just watch an ol' pro." He walked onto the dance floor and cut in to a couple dancing. The guy grabbed him by the should but soon gave up when he got a good look at Gambit's enormity. The girl did not seem to have any problem at all. 

Max grinned. "Dude I'd better go after my squeeze before he does." His eyes traveled around the room for a few moments before they came to rest on a blond in the middle of the crowd. She danced with every man on the floor, her body undulating with the music, her skin glistening in the light. Max raised his eyebrows and pointed to her. 

"That, is my squeeze tonight."

  
"So you're the smoldering temptress kinda guy?" Anthony asked.

  
"Oh yeah, the wilting flowers are boring in bed. Now if you'll excuse me." He slid off to the dance floor.

  
Ryan shook his head. He watched Max glide in front of the blond. He smiled. She smiled. They spoke a few words and continued to dance. Ryan looked away slightly disgusted. He did not particularly care to observe people dancing hip to hip. He took a sip of his soft drink and relaxed into the plastic booth cushion. The dark music swallowed him up  
dragging him back to a time that he would prefer to forget. It reminded him of the pain, the crash of the door at random intervals during his endless night, the fire of his anger brimming to the top threatening to spill over, the guilt. But he felt the guilt no more, now he felt only the anger, only the desire for vengeance. The audacity of those men! They murdered his family and for two years he thought he had done it.  


The music changed and he eased out of his trance. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. When his eyes landed on the bar he laughed. There stood the giant. Andie's brother Asher.

  
"Would you like to share with the rest of the class dude?" Anthony asked.

  
"Your friend is here," Ryan said pointing to the bar.

  
Ryan realized the depth of his mistake as a smile spread across Anthony's face. "I'll be right back," Anthony said.

  
"Wait, Anthony don't start anything," Ryan said, but Anthony was already pushing his way through the crowd. 

Ryan stood and followed him wishing with every step that he could redirect Anthony's attention. He did not know Asher's power but he knew both of their tempers. The fact the Andie had kissed Anthony did not help the situation one bit.

  
Anthony reached the bar before Ryan could catch him. He leaned against the counter in plain view of the giant. While he ordered a drink he acted like he did not notice Asher, however, clearly noticed him and Ryan watched his already monstrous muscles tense. Anthony glanced over as if by chance. 

He pointed a finger at him. "Hey, you're Andie's brother, Asher right?"

  
Asher nodded, his jaw one giant mass of tense muscle. His mouth remained a thin line.

  
A smile pulled Anthony's lips away from his white teeth. "You know," he said leaning forward as if he were sharing a secret. "You're sister's not half bad for a fist timer."

  
/Oh please no, Ryan thought. God why did I open my big mouth?/

  
What happened next happened so fast that it even surprised Ryan. Asher snapped his fingers, an orange glow filled his black eyes and a hand shot out toward Anthony. Flames rushed from his fingers but did not go far. A blue electric looking force field surrounded his hands and the fire died. It was not until Asher glared over at Ryan that he realized his  
own outstretched arm.

  
Anthony pointed and laughed. Then he looked at Ryan. "I could have done that."

  
Ryan shrugged. "It was a reflex."

  
"What did you do?" Asher asked. Ice chipped from his words.

  
"He waved his magic wand-" Anthony said as if explaining to a little child.

  
"No," Ryan cut him off. He turned to Asher with a small sense of victory. "In laymen's terms, you've been hexed."

  
"Who the heck are you?" Asher asked annoyed, "This is between me and Eminem over there." He pointed Anthony's way.  
  
"Eminem!?!" Anthony yelled. "I'll show you Eminem." Anthony lifted his hand, raw energy building up.

  
"No. He's not worth it." Ryan insisted.

  
"Yes he is." Anthony snarled.

  
"Anthony, do not make me hex you too."

  
But Anthony raised his hand hatred smoking from his eyes. Ryan sighed. Me and my big mouth. They're gonna burn this place down. He raised his hand too and Anthony's hands disappeared beneath the blue shields.

  
/Wait, I didn't do that, Ryan thought./

  
"Ryan!" Anthony yelled.

  
"Hold up, I didn't do it this time," Ryan defended himself. "I was going to but-"

  
"I got to it first." They all turned in the direction of the cold voice.

  
"Wanda?" Asher said.

  
She did not answer. 

Her green eyes remained locked on Ryan. They did everything in their power to freeze him, but he only grinned. "Well, now that the children have been put in time out, we should make them go to their rooms. What do you say?" He asked.

  
"Children?" Asher and Anthony asked.

  
"Sorry X-geek but we're not exactly on the same team if you didn't notice." Wanda said. 

She tried to hex Ryan's power using only one hand but Ryan merely brushed the hex off like he would a mosquito.

  
"Wow kiddo, let's not start anything here. Didn't we just stop these two from burning down the place?"

  
A growl escaped from Wanda's lips and one of the overhead lights above Ryan's head broke loose from the ceiling. He heard the moan from above just in time to step out of the way and avoid serious damage to his body. With a loud crash the light hit the floor and with a sickening crunch the bones in Ryan's foot cracked under the weight. He ground his  
teeth and refused the yell. 

A crowd already formed around them and he did not want to make any more of a scene. 

Suddenly everything went black. Ryan felt the heavy object lifted off his foot and two strong hands half dragged half carried him away. He hovered in his world of darkness and confusion until they reached the door and stepped into the moon light. He now saw that Gambit had pulled him out and Kurt now appeared in a puff of blue smoke with Anthony kicking and cursing.

  
"You kids need ta be a little bit more careful from now on." Gambit snarled. "Especially you Mr. Schamaluffel. Next time we won' drag ya out of trouble, savvy?"

  
Ryan nodded. Anthony cursed under his breath. Gambit glared at him and he stopped.

  
The double doors whined open and Max swaggered out into the light with the pretty blond on his arm. "Hey, where's the applause?" He asked.

  
"Applause?"

  
Max rolled his eyes. "Without me we might all be in prison by now," he said. "I did cut the power- holy crap look at Ryan's foot!"

  
They all looked down. The bloody mass of brown leather floated above the ground suspended by Ryan's leg. He then remembered the fiery pain and let out a little groan that slowly turned in to a sob. He sunk too the ground severely embarrassed and severely in pain.

Anthony hoisted Ryan up and put his arm over his shoulders. "Come one, we'd better get the cry baby back to the mansion," he said with a grin.

  
"I'm not a cry baby," Ryan retorted.

  
"Yeah sure," Anthony laughed.

  
"Would you like me to drop something on your foot? Yeah, didn't think so." They hopped to Anthony's car and he slid into the leather seat, resisting the urge to let on how much pain he was in.

  
"See you guys later," Max said sliding into his own car. The blond already sat in the passenger seat. He grinned and winked.

  
Ryan shook his head as the car pulled out of the parking lot.  



	36. Stubborn

Chapter 36: Stubborn 

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

  
"No! No! And for the hundredth time No!" Ryan said almost shouting.

  
He hopped to the other side of the room and held up a baseball bat.

  
"Come on Ryan, I'm a healer, it's my job-"

  
"No!" Ryan hopped away from Zeke again. "Don't make me hex something!"  
  
"Ryan stop acting like a five year old." Zeke tried to tackle him but had to dodge the swinging bat.

  
Ryan had lost all color and the world did not seem to want to stay in it's proper place but he refused to let Zeke take the pain. 

Anthony grabbed him and tried to hold him but Ryan popped him in the leg as softly but efficiently as he could. He yelped and rubbed his shin.

  
"Somebody hold me back 'cause I'm gonna break his other foot!" Anthony yelled.

  
Someone tripped him and he fell on his face. He cranked his neck to see Andie sitting on top of him. "Breath kiddo," she said. "He's not exactly thinking straight."

  
Ryan hopped over to his bed to have something to hold onto. He grabbed the bed post and held the bat out like a sword. Shadows started forming around the corners of his vision and the room rocked back and forth like a rocking chair. "You're not going to be in pain because of me!" Ryan said. His voice sounded strange and wobbly, he did not like it.

  
A soft hand touched his shaking arm. He slowly turned to look into the dark blue eyes that belonged to Hope. "Ryan, at least lay down on the bed, you're going to break something else," she said softly.

  
He could not argue for he could no longer hold himself up. In fact, everything seemed to be moving all of a sudden, not rocking, but running away from him, including Hope. Pain shot through his rear end as he hit the ground. He started up at the ceiling, not entirely sure where he was anymore. He saw Hope bend over him and then Zeke, but he could not  
here anything, and soon, he could not see.  



	37. Healing

Chapter 37: Healing 

PLEASE Read and Review! 

***

Sensations came back before sight did, as did sound. His stomach danced inside like a drunken sailor, his head swam, and his rear and foot throbbed. He open his eyes and squinted. The only light in the room came from the hallway through the open door but his eyes still ached. He rolled his head to the right and saw three figures. He could just barely make out Zeke's face, by the smell he knew Hope sat nearest to him, holding his hand, and the bulky shape of the wheel chair gave away Professor Xavier's presence.

  
"Hey," Ryan said slowly. His voice still sounded strange. "My foot still hurts, you didn't heal me."

  
Zeke grinned. "You hit me with a bat dude, I'm healing myself."

  
"Good," Ryan replied. "If you try to heal me again I'll hex you."

  
"How do you feel baby?" Hope asked, saying the last word shyly.

  
"Like someone dropped a light fixture on my foot, and I hopped around a room swinging a baseball bat for ten minuets trying to ward off a healer," Ryan replied.

  
"Oh, so you're not feelin' to hot huh?" Zeke asked.

  
Ryan simply rolled his eyes, he still felt a little fuzzy, and the warmth that embraced him rocked him into the stage right before sleep, but the Professor had something to say.

  
"Ryan, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your actions at the club," he said. "There could have been chaos had you not done something."

  
"Thanks Professor," Ryan mumbled. The warmth satiated his body and his eyes drew closer together again.

  
"However, we do need to be careful about displaying our powers in public. I'm sure you of all people understand the importance of this. You acted very responsibly and I am not accusing you of anything."  


But Ryan did not hear the Professor's last words. The warm hands of sleep already embraced him and rocked him into their world, where he dreamt of Hope and Kael, where no one had powers and everyone lived together in peace, a ridiculous Utopia he knew could never exist but longed for with all his being.  



	38. No Names

Chapter 38: No Names

PLEASE Read and Review! 

***

The sun slapped Max hard in the face as he opened his eyes. It's stark hands reached out from a crack in the ugly maroon and green curtains to take the sight from his eyes. He groaned and rolled away. The empty space beside him still felt warm from the girls body and he remembered. A cocky grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. From one side of the room he could hear the shower running. 

Max stretched and pushed himself up. For a moment he stood staring at his twin in the mirror. It tried to tell him something but he ignored it. Stepping over the red leather purse he grabbed his boxers from the floor. 

Something nudged him, tickled his brain. 

He ignored it.

  
Max whipped his jeans off the couch and slid into them. 

/Nudge, nudge./

  
He ignored it. 

Now he searched for his shirt. Not on the couch, not on the sink, not under the bed... He found it on the bathroom sink. 

/Don't remember being here/ Max thought. /Wait, yes I do./

He touched the wet spot on the back of his pants from when he bumped up against the  
faucet. The little squares of soap and bottles of face wash lay in disarray all over the sink. 

/Nudge, nudge. /

He still ignored it. 

As he prepared to put his shirt on the door to the bathroom opened. Out from the smoke emerged the beautiful blond. On her head she wore his hat, and only the white hotel towel covered her body. Her golden skin glistened from the water. 

Max licked his lips and tossed his shirt on the bed. 

Her red lips parted into a broad smile as she approached him, "Hey cowboy, where you missing this?" She flipped the hat off her head and dropped it onto his.

  
He grinned his crooked grin. As he leaned against the counter she glided over to one side of the bed. The towel dropped to the floor.  


Max's grin widened.

  
"So I never got your name." He stated.

  
The girl turned, now partially cover with her black lacey bra and thong. She slinked up to him and ran the back of her long red finger nails lightly across his chest. Her lips neared his but then she pulled away. 

"I thought last night you said no names." She pulled her red dress over her curves and then her hands rested on her hips.

  
"That's right, no names." He pushed off the counter and circled around behind her. "Just call it, curiosity," he said in a low raspy whisper.

  
She bent down and picked up her shoes and purse, then slithered to the door. Over her shoulder she smiled and said, "No names."

  
/Nudge, nudge. /

/Go away/ he thought.  



	39. The Rundown

Chapter 39: The Rundown

Anthony cleared his throat before he walked into the living room. 

On the couch sat Andie, completely consumed by her Physics book. The lamp behind her shot out around her and gave the illusion that her head was on fire; like the burning bush Moses saw. Her hair had changed since she first went to town with the scissors. She had gone crawling to Zeke and begged him to make it grow to at least her cheek bones. Then, she had chopped of some bangs and highlighted her now brown hair with red and gold highlights. Most of it swooped to one side and curved up and out like a ski sloop. Right now, in the golden light, she almost looked like an angel, that is, an angel in camo pants.

  
She did not look up when came to stand beside her, but simply asked, "Can I help you?" Her eyes remained glued to the pages.

  
"Yeah," Anthony said clearing his throat again. "I was wondering if you would...like to go to the movies with me?"

  
Andie's eyes swept up to meet his. "Why? Do you really wanna spend the evening with someone who quote 'Is suffering from PMS.'"

  
"Don't flatter yourself. Ryan is out with Hope and Kurt is doing a late night training session...so alas I come to you." Anthony explained.

  
An eyebrow peaked and she gave a short laugh. "I'd like to, Anthony, I really would. It's just that this book has become incredibly intriguing all of a sudden." She looked back down at the pages.

  
"It's a physics book." Anthony narrowed his eyes.

  
"I'm expanding my mind."

  
"You're not still mad because I told you to get over being pissy at the breakfast table are you?"

  
"No...of course not. Why would I ever be upset about that? Just because you were insensitive when I was in pain...no, no I'm happy as can be. Just peachy." She still did not look up. If Anthony didn't know better he would have thought that she really did like the book.

  
"Alright...I'm sorry I said you have PMS. But I mean...you have to admit you were being a little..."

  
"Don't say it."

  
"Tempestuous."

  
"Alright enjoy your movie...alone."

  
"Come on Andie." He replied as he sat down beside her, "Do you know how many girls would kill for this opportunity?"

  
"Then where are they?"

  
"I could have them, but I want you to go with me. You should be honored."

  
"Pha! Honored? Does the word modesty, mean anything to you?" She rolled her eyes, still not looking up.

  
Maybe it's time to change tactics, Anthony thought. "Come on Andie, do you have anything better to do? I mean, besides reading about Physics."  
  
"I'm not going Anthony. And there's nothing you can do or say that will get me to," Andie said.

  
Anthony's face pulled to the middle in a scowl. Nobody rejected him, not even Andrea Daugherty. Especially not Andrea Daugherty. "Oh yeah?" He asked. Before she could react he yanked the text book from her hands and hauled her over his shoulder.

  
"Anthony Schamaluffel, you put me down right now!" Andie yelled. She tired to kick her legs but Anthony's arm wrapped around them like a bolt and her arms did her no good, from the position he had her in all she could do was hit him in the back, and not very hard. He walked out into the hallway carrying her like a sack of potatoes. "I mean it Anthony! If you don't put me down you're gonna regret it!"

  
"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats Andrea," Anthony said.

  
They passed by Max, who sat on the couch in the down stairs living room, amusing himself by making the TV to go on and off. "Max!" Andie yelled.

  
Max looked up. But instead of getting up to help he exploded into laughter. "Way to go Anthony!" He yelled.

  
"What!?" Andie cried.

  
"Somebody had to harness you sometime," Max said.

  
Anthony stopped for a moment as Professor Xavier rolled into the hallway. "Professor make him put me down!" Andie shouted.

  
"Are you going to the movies Anthony?" The professor asked.

  
"Yessir," Anthony replied.

  
"Be back before twelve," he said, and rolled past them.

  
"Professor!" Andie yelled again.

  
He did not turn around. More laughter came from Max. Anthony walked to the door and stopped again. Logan stood in front of it. Then Logan opened it.

  
"Logan!"

  
"Sorry monkey," he said with a grin.

  
"Yeah sure," she said. "We'll see if I ever talk to any of you people again!"

  
"Want some duck tape Anthony?" Logan asked.

  
"Nah that's okay, I think she'll quiet down after a while," he replied.

  
They exited the house and walking into the frigid night. All the sky twinkled with glitter as if it were preparing to go to a ball. The moon cast it's silvery light all about the grounds of the mansion, guiding the kidnapper out to his car. Without a word he opened his trunk with his free hand and threw Andie in the back of it. "Enjoy your ride." Anthony said and slammed the trunk shut. He hopped quickly into the front seat and shot off before she could liquidate and get out. When they reached the movie theater he opened the trunk with caution.

  
She lay in the corner with her arms crossed, but he could see the corners of her mouth threatening to pull into a grin.

  
"So, you didn't try to make a jail break?" He asked extending a hand to her.

  
"I didn't want to die," she replied sitting up. "You were going like eighty down the highway."

  
Another car screeched to a stop beside them and the doors popped open like the top of a wine bottle. Asher jumped out of the car and ran over to the trunk.

  
"What the heck are you doing?" He yelled at Anthony. "You okay Andie?"  
  
Her green eyes went hard and she grabbed Anthony's hand which still stuck out to help her from the car. "What do you care? You're not my brother." She said turning her back on him and pulling Anthony in the direction of the theater.

  
"You were the one who drew the lines Andie not me!" Asher yelled.

  
Andie shut her eyes and tried not to turn back. All she wanted now was to cry and be held. But it did not work that way. Crying would help nothing. It might even make things worse. When they reached the lines and were out of Asher's sight Anthony grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.

  
"You okay kid?"

  
"Yeah, sure," she looked away. "So what movie are we watching?"

  
"How's The Rundown sound?"

  
Her head popped up. "No way! Sweet, I love the Rock. Did you see Scorpion King?"

  
"Yeah, I loved that movie." Anthony replied.

  
"Well, you have good taste in movies," Andie said smiling for the first time that night.

  
They got their tickets and walked into the theater. People literally filled the room like an ant pile gone completely mad. Andie and Anthony rushed into the movie so they could get good seats. They pushed their way to the top row and sat right in the middle. 

Perfect. 

No big heads in the way, no little kid to kick the back of their seats.

  
Perfect, Anthony thought.

  
The screen still flashed the goofy commercials that simply kept people entertained. Some of the little questions they had really disgusted him. Could people really be dense enough to miss the coke-a-cola's in that picture? He wondered.

  
"Wow, I missed one!" Andie gasped.

  
Anthony looked over at her, his eyebrows low. "Are you serious?"

  
Andie gave him a ditsy look. "Yeah, sure Anthony I'm as serious as a heart attack," she laughed.

  
He hit her leg with the back of his hand. She hit him back. He elbowed her shoulder. She elbowed him back. He grabbed her wrists with one hand and shook his finger at her. 

"Child."

  
"Oh yeah?" Andie kicked him in the leg. "Do you smell what the Rock is  
cookin'?"

  
The lights went dim and the speakers screamed. Someone in the seat in front of them glared back at them.

  
"Give me my hands back," Andie said. She held up three fingers. "Hey dude, read between the lines!"

  
"Oh my gosh," Anthony laughed pinning her hands down again. "You're gonna get yourself killed."

  
"Quiet, the movie's starting." She giggled.

***  


Halfway into the movie Anthony started his usual ritual. He stretched his arms up and let one fall behind Andie. She glanced at him but made no movement to remove it. Anthony grinned. Irresistible, he thought.

  
He then pretended to sneeze and his arm fell around her shoulders.

  
Andie rolled her eyes in his direction.

  
"Okay Danny Zooko, I'm not quite as naive as Sandy," she said.

  
"What?" Anthony asked trying to sound innocent.

  
Andie shook her head but returned her eyes to the movie.

  
Anthony thought very carefully about his next move. For some reason he could not just do it at any time with her. Something about her told him not to do it in the movie theater. But he could wait. He could be patient.  



	40. Comforting Embrace

Chapter 40: Comforting Embrace

PLEASE Read and Review! At this time I would just like to re-specify that this story is PG-13. This means any content that can be slipped into a PG-13 film I am allowed to include within my fic. You have been warned. Not old enough, no read. 

***

Andie and Anthony tried with all their being's too keep quiet but they failed miserably. Everything brought about another burst of laughter, another stomp on the floor, another trip. They continued to run into each other or the walls and once they almost sent a vase to an early grave. When they reached Andie's room they tried to steady themselves but Andie made the mistake of opening the door to quickly and they landed on the floor. Andie tried to push him off but she was laughing to hard. As Anthony tried to stand his head collided with the door slamming it shut. Andie fell into another uncontrollable bout of laughter.

  
"That's not funny," Anthony said rubbing his head.

  
"Maybe not for you," Andie gasped.

  
"Andie, Andie, what's your name?"

  
"What?"

  
"It doesn't matter!" Anthony quoted the Rock.

  
Andie forced herself up and hit the light switch for the lamp on the table. Her roommate was visiting her family so they were completely alone.

  
"I'm so going to rock bottom you," Andie said.

  
"I'd love to see you try," Anthony said.

  
Andie eyed him. "You're not worth it." She walked toward her bathroom and then suddenly jumped at him. He caught her but then lost his balance. They both fell onto the bed, Anthony on bottom.

  
"No, no, no I won't stand for this," he said. He rolled over until he won the top.

  
She giggled. "I got you do-own!"

  
"Oh yeah, look who's on the bottom," Anthony taunted. 

Suddenly, Anthony's lips brushed hers, and like a wave rushes over the sands, Anthony was flooded with a passion he'd never felt before. He kissed her again, this time harder. She kissed back. His tongue parted her shy lips. He let go of her arms and pressed her to his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He felt her small fingers slid hesitantly into his curly hair. 

So soft, surprisingly soft. 

She smelled wonderful, like flowers after a rain shower. He pulled her closer than any woman he had ever pulled close before. And he could think of nothing but being with her.  
Andie felt his large hand slid up her back under her shirt, but she did not stop him. His presence intoxicated her. Big and strong. She could feel the muscles in his back contract. He held her tightly but at the same time softly. She did not know how to explain it. His soft lips touched her neck and she sighed. Her head rolled back. The cool air of the room kissed her body as her shirt slowly left it. Then her heart started to race. 

/What if I'm bad?/ She thought. /He has someone to compare me to, I've never done this, what if I'm bad?/ 

His hands slid down her back side. 

/Okay, keep calm Andie, she coached herself. Just don't think about it./

  
Anthony pushed his jacket of as the room heated up. He felt Andie's hands slid palm down his chest and tentatively pushed up his shirt.

  
Against his bare chest he could feel her heart pounding. She's nervous, he mused. How cute. Anthony nuzzled her neck to reassure her. He pulled her tiny frame close. He could feel her start to shake in his arms. He stroked her hair and kissed her ear. She leaned her face to his neck and kissed it softly. Her warm hands rubbed his back lightly, her fingers twirled his hair. 

Anthony sighed. /This isn't anything like it was with Caroline,/ he thought. /Nothing at all./  



	41. The Morning After

Chapter 41: The Morning After

Sorry for the delay with the update. The computer situation is now under control so expect more frequent updates. I hope everyone is still interested in reading this. I know it has taken forever. As always PLEASE Read and Review! 

***

Anthony opened his eyes and squinted. Even the little strand of light that poured from the curtains burned his eyes. 

Wait, he thought. This isn't my room. 

He suddenly became aware of the warmth he held to his chest and he looked down. Andie. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of her hair. She seemed like nothing more than a child in his arms. 

Small and delicate, easily broken. 

His mind wondered back to the events of the previous night. The smooth sensation of skin against skin. The steamy glances and taunting kisses. And then...he had been completely wrapped up in the moment. It was the first time in forever he had been truly happy. It had been bliss...

  
Bliss that now ended and with it a new sense of paranoia set in. He had forgotten something important he was supposed to do before the act occurred. He knew he was supposed to but he couldn't quite grasp what he had forgotten. He closed his eyes again and dug through his muddled mind. Then it hit him...

  
No protection.

  
Anthony felt his heart sink down to the bottom of his stomach.  


I always did have a problem with that.

  
You shouldn't have done this, you know what happened before with Caroline...You ended up with Grace and since then your entire life has been devoted to a baby, his mind whispered to him. He could feel the quickening of his pulse, just like Andie's had quickened the night before. He looked down at the sleeping child. Her head leaned against his chest and he could feel her warm breath gently brush against his abs. 

All right, Anthony, stay calm. Just because you didn't use protection does not mean she is pregnant. I mean...you and Caroline did it in the rain, the garage, the car, the tent...It was only once with Andie, it's all right.... 

Who am I kidding? Some guys shoot blanks, I shoot a toxin.

  
Maybe if I slip out of the bed she'll forget I was ever here.

  
Give me a break. It was her first time...you always remember your first.  
  
But what if it wasn't her first time. Maybe she's a smoldering temptress in disguise...but wait she said I was her first kiss.

  
I am so screwed...Why did I do this? How could I be so stupid...again.

Maybe because you like her...a lot.

  
But why do I like her? What does she have that other girls don't?

  
She challenges you. Makes you want to be better. She makes you feel like more than a stupid kid from St. Louis with a baby...

  
The first time his eyes had landed on Andie he knew that she was beautiful. He felt instantly attracted. And then when she spoke and came back with her witty remark, he knew they could get along. He remembered thinking of her, 'A girl like that could make you feel things...tempt you to get involved.'

  
He had told himself he wouldn't get involved, not again. He hadn't loved Caroline, maybe at the time he thought he had, but looking back on it now it was nothing more than teenage lust. But Andie...made him feel different.

  
Great, I've deflowered an innocent child.

  
In her sleep Andie drew closer to him and sighed. It was then that he noticed her arm draped over his side underneath his own arm. She held him with that arm, but not the way Caroline had. Andie held him softly. She held him as if to say 'I love you'. Not in a jealous rough way, but a giving way. He felt the rush again and pulled her closer, his hand on the back of her head.

  
At his touch her eyes fluttered open. The two pools of blue rose up to meet his eyes. A brilliant smile he had never seen before breathed onto her lips. "Hi," she said shyly.

  
"You're pregnant," Anthony stated before he could stop himself.

  
"What?" She asked.

  
"Um, never mind," Anthony, replied recovering. "Hi."

  
A question lingered in Andie's mind but she did not know if she would be stupid to ask it. She kept her mouth shut but it tickled the back of her mind, taunting her. Anthony saw it in her face.

  
"You okay?" He asked.

  
Andie's face turned red and she hid it from him.

  
"What's wrong?" He stroked her head.

  
Finally, she got the guts and asked almost inaudibly; "Was I...bad?"

  
"You were better at this than you were at kissing the first time," Anthony said.

  
Andie scowled at him. "I'm going to kick you."

  
Anthony laughed. "In your current condition I'd love to see you try."

  
"I'm far too tired and in too much pain to do it," Andie sighed. She closed her eyes. "You are mean."

  
"What? Me? How am I mean?" Anthony asked.

  
"You think I'm bad in bed," she whined.

  
"Yes Andie, you're right, you totally sucked last night," Anthony said rolling his eyes with a grin.

  
Andie hit him with the back of her hand. She would have hit him harder but her eyelids were growing heavy, and it took too much effort to even look up at him anymore. Everything felt so warm in his arms. In his arms. She remembered her wish from last night, from every night. How she had longed so much for someone to hold her and just let her cry.

  
And now two powerful arms were wrapped around her, protecting her from  
the world. Here she felt safe. She felt her head roll down to his chest as sleep slowly carried her away. But the last thought before she surrendered completely haunted the rest of her dreams; Would he stay?


	42. Hulking Dilemma

Chapter 42: Hulking Dilemma

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

***

The sound of leather hammering plastic echoed through the empty gym like explosions from a gun. Sweat splattered on the ground as Ryan mutilated the punching bag with his fists. All the anger he hid from everyone else pounded against the plastic. A red haze bordered his vision but he held onto consciousness. Today control threaten to pack it's bags and leave Ryan's mind.

  
The metal chain that held the bag to the ceiling groaned in the turbulence of his wrath. Pictures of his little brother danced through his mind; pictures of him playing, of him sleeping, of him laughing, of him lying under the big screen TV. 

The chain snapped and the punching bag launched across the room like a cannon ball. Bits of ceiling and dust rained down onto the floor. 

Ryan growled. 

Great, he thought. I'm destroying the mansion. He sighed and hopped over to the red mass lying in defeat on the floor. From one of the seams protruded white stuffing, but the chain still clung to the metal loops at the top. He eased onto the ground and stared at his still broken foot. It burned and throbbed and he wished that he had listened to what the professor said about staying off of it. Ryan looked up at the sound of the double doors  
opening. 

As Hope glided in her pink smile diminished.

  
"Ryan, are you okay?" She asked kneeling down beside him. Ryan shoved the hair off of his forehead and pushed the air from his mouth. "Just a little frustrated," he said.

  
"Just a little?" Hope asked looking at the hole in the ceiling.

  
"No, in fact, I'm livid." He pushed himself up with his hurt foot suspend in the air and sat on a nearby bench. "Today just...I don't know, for lack of a better word the world sucks today."

  
Hope rolled an exercise ball up beside the bench and rubbed Ryan's purple toes. At this he could not help but grin. The simple gesture showed him that some good, some compassion still existed in the world.

  
"So why does today suck babe?" Hope asked.

  
The brown eyes did not meet hers but stared off into space. "Three years ago today, my family was slaughtered..."

  
The muscles in his jaw tensed and the skin on his knuckles turned white as he clenched the sides of the bench. The red haze bordered his vision again and he breathed in deeply. He sighed and shook his head. "I hate him, God forgive me I hate him."

  
Hope's heart jumped a little faster. Ryan was the nicest guy she ever met, but his power and anger scared her. She knew he had every reason in the world to be angry but still... The question always lingered in her mind; What if he lost control? 

The consequences would be disastrous. On the Internet she had found pictures of Paul Dorsey after Ryan lost his control the first time. He looked like he had been thrown from a roof. That kind of anger backed up by that kind of power was dangerous. 

Hope felt guilty for being so frightened but she could not help it. 

She felt like Betty Ross with the Hulk. But then, when he smiled at her... How could someone with so much love and compassion in his heart have so much anger? Her thought patterns broke as his tan hand closed around hers. She looked up into his big eyes.

  
"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be so angry but-"

  
Hope cut him off with a kiss. He was a magnet to her. She could not help but loose herself in those eyes, in that smile, in his kiss. He controlled his anger now, and maybe that zeal could roll out into love for her. She wished it with all her heart. Without knowing it she slid her hands up his arm to his shoulders, then wrapped her arms around his neck. So warm, so strong. She laughed inwardly at his kisses, sort of timid, but intense. The first time she had kissed him he tensed so much that she thought he had gone into shock.

  
Her hands slid down his chest but he grabbed them. "Slow down Hope," he said with a smile.

  
"Sorry," Hope said. "I guess I got a little carried away." 

The bench creaked as Ryan rose to one foot. He bent down and kissed her head. "I care about you way too much to hurt you like that." Ryan reached for his crutches and left the gym. 

Hope sat staring at the floor for a few moments. 

Rejection? 

Was he saying I don't care? Hope wondered. 

She tried to push the thoughts aside, but they nudged her brain all the more. She did not want to have sex with anyone but her husband, but at the moment her mind had left  
her. All she could see was Ryan's soft brown eyes. All she could feel were his strong arms. 

How could he think that I don't care?  



	43. Tabby to the Rescue

Chapter 43: Tabby to the Rescue

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

Thump, thump, thump, thump. Max's fingers pounded the hard surface of the computer. The screen blinked on and off each time a finger hit. He sighed and grabbed his gray cell phone from his pants pocket. As the numbers dialed on there own he eased back in his chair. The legs groaned. 

The phone rang.

  
"Hello?"

  
"Tabby I'm bored. Save me."

  
Her annoying laugh traveled across the phone. "I thought a sexy cowboy like yourself could find entertainment in any situation."

  
"Shut up." He said, annunciating each word.

  
Her voice lowered to a sexy whisper. "Want me to come over?"

  
"Try a change of scenery," Max grumbled.

  
"That's a little rude," Tabitha said. "I thought we always had fun together."

  
"Save it for someone who cares," Max growled.

  
"You better not be cocky or I'll leave you there to rot."

  
"No, no. Please don't leave me here," Max begged. "I might die if I stay here much longer."

  
"Is Max begging?"

  
"I do not beg, I wine," Max said. "Until I get my way."

  
"Where do you want to meet?"

  
"The club."

  
"You want me to bring Wanda? Sh-"

  
"No! Anyone but her!" Max said. "You can bring Fred for all I care, just not her. What kind of looser are you? Don't you have any other friends, who don't drop light fixtures on people's feet?"

  
"I could see if Lilly wants to go." Tabitha said. "However, I don't usually like to bring around friends who I deem prettier than me..."

  
"Lilly? Who's Lilly?" Max asked perking up.

  
"No, never mind-"

  
"Tabby, Tabby no one could be prettier than you," Max said.

  
"Even little misses Jean Grey?"

  
"No. Of course not. Now what does she look like?"

  
Tabitha laughed again, this time it did not annoy Max as much. "Let's make it a surprise," she said. "When do you want to meet?"

  
Max looked over at the clock and groaned; no red letters glowed against the black surface. About thirty minutes ago he had been entertaining himself by making it turn on and off. Unfortunately, even if he turned it on it would blink 12:00. He looked at the computer, remembering that it had a clock at the top of the screen.

  
"Well, it's six o'clock now, so...meet me in fifteen minutes," Max said.  
  
"Okay, see ya then." 

Click.

  
/Great, Max thought. New squeeze. If she's friends with Tabby, chances are she is easy as Tabby./

  
Nudge, nudge. 

/Go away./  



	44. Lilly

Chapter 44: Lilly

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

A wave of smoke washed over Max as he entered the club. The smell of alcohol mixed with perfume assaulted his nose and he grimaced. He shoved his way through the forest of bodies making his way to the bar.

  
Scantily clad girls flowed with the music using their bodies as bait for hormonally driven males, and the young men in the crowd scanned the girls, trying to choose the best looking one who would give them any attention. 

Max snickered to himself. 

/Armatures/, he thought.

  
Through the smoke he spotted Tabitha sitting at the bar. Her cheeks swelled as she smiled at the bar tender and ran her finger around the rim of her bubbly drink. Max walked through the smoke and dancers and slid onto the bar stool beside her.

  
"There you are," Tabitha said. "I thought you'd gotten into and accident or something."

  
Max ordered a drink and then turned to her. "Must not have been too worried," he said. "You seem to be enjoying yourself."

  
She brought the glass to her red lips and the sparkling liquid disappeared. The soft light made her tan skin glow and her eyes sparkle. Max almost wished that he had asked Tabitha to come over but the mystery of Lilly tickled his brain.

  
"So," Max said when Tabitha made no move to answer him. "Where is this mystery girl?"

  
The two blue diamonds scanned the dance floor. "When you didn't show up at seven thirty she decided to go dance-oh there she is!"

  
Max followed the direction of Tabitha's red nail. There, in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by men, danced the mystery girl. Her blond hair slapped her back as she moved with the music, and her tan skin sparkled when the lights flashed over it. She danced over to one of the guys in her circle and for a moment danced hip to hip with him.  
Her lips neared his but then she spun away as if he had simply loaned her some change.

  
A grin stretched Max's lips. I picked a good day to be bored, he thought. Tabby was right; Lilly looks way better than she does.

  
"Don't drool on the floor Maxi," Tabitha said. She popped the back of her hand under his chin. "So, you ready to meet her?"

  
"Sure, I guess so," Max said.

  
"Let's go cowboy."

  
They weaved their way through the crowd. Every once in a while girls would glide up close to Max flashing smiles at him that most guys would have gladly followed, but Max had a destination, Max had a mystery. Lilly was set off. Lilly looked unattainable. Max liked that.

  
When they reached the circle of men Max and Tabitha pushed their way through, without any qualms. When the guys saw the size of Max's muscles they did not even try to pick a fight. Tabitha grabbed Lilly's arm.

  
"Hey Lil' this is my friend Max I was telling you about," she yelled.

  
The whole world stopped for Max as the pink lips parted into a smile.

  
"Hey cowboy," she said taking the hat off his head.

  
Max grinned a crooked grin and grabbed her hand as she spun away. He pulled her back in and flipped his hat off her head with a flick of his finger. It came to rest on his own and he whispered in her ear, "Wearing the hat is a privilege." He spun her out again.

  
She moved closer to him with her arms raised over her head, her hips swinging. Her shirt came up and he noticed a belly button ring winking at him. For a moment he worried that Tabitha was left out some where in the crowd, but then he caught sight of her a few feet away dancing with the guy Lilly had rejected earlier.

  
Lilly stole back his attention as she slid her hands up his chest and then around his neck. "So, how does one earn the privilege of wearing the hat?" She asked.

  
He slid his hands down her sides to her hips. "Hmmm, that's a good question." He took her hands and twisted her around so she danced with her back against him. "It's a long and rigorous process." Lilly spun out and he pulled her back in, this time closer. "You would have to be judged very strictly."

  
"Oh really," Lilly said gliding a long nail back and forth across his throat. "What would I be judged on?"

  
Max's eyes scanned her body. "Well, let's be honest; appearance is important. Of course, the skin has to be firm, and smooth, and soft."

  
Lilly smiled and then pushed him away. "You're qualifications are too high for me cowboy." She glided past him, grabbed his hat, and danced to the bar.

  
Max raised his eyebrows. Not many girls ever made him run after them, and the few that did never intrigued him as much as she did. He followed her and slid into the stool next to her. When he reached for his hat she flicked it off and caught it behind her back. She waved over the bar tender. With a smile that would have made a priest stumble she ordered a Dubena with a twist. She ignored Max until the bar tender slid the drink before her.

  
"Umm, can I have a straw?" She asked the bartender.

  
His eyebrows came together in confusion but he reached down and dropped a red straw in her glass. Lilly leaned over the bar and holding the straw with two fingers downed half the glass.

  
She then turned back to Max. "You want your hat back cowboy?"

  
Max pushed his bottom lip out. "Yes," he whined. 

"You do? Well come and get it."

  
Max eyed her for a moment, but then smiled. He slid off his bar stool and reached behind her for his hat. In one swift movement she plopped the hat on his head, brushed a kiss against his lips and disappeared into the crowd. 

For a moment Max stood stunned. 

/This is new/, he thought. 

He licked his lips and smiled. 

/Kiwi mango, very sexy./

  
Again he followed her into the crowd, but then stopped dead in his tracks. In the middle of the dance floor, Lilly danced hip to hip with Pietro Maximoff. They danced so close together Max was surprised that either of them could breathe. Then, Lilly sent a shard of ice through Max's heart, her tongue slid out of her mouth and she licked Pietro's ear. 

Max's eyes nearly left his skull.

  
He felt a hand on his shoulder and new by the smell of Chanel perfume that it was Tabitha. "So, what do you think?"

  
"She's dancing with Pietro Maximoff."

  
"I take it you like her," Tabitha said. "I did well."

  
"Like isn't exactly the word I would have picked," Max said. "I want her, there's a difference."

  
Max walked over to the couple and danced up behind her. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "I'm through playing your games. I'm leaving. If you want to come follow me."

  
Lilly brushed Pietro on the nose and followed Max.

Later…  


When they reached the hotel the temperature around them had gone up about twenty degrees. Max and Lilly nearly broke the coffee table as they entered the room. They fell onto the bed and Max rolled on top.

  
Lilly laughed and flipped him over, "I don't think so cowboy." Before Max even knew what was happening she had both their belts ripped off and his hands tied to the railing of the bed. 

When she was done she sighed and sat upright, still straddling his waste.

  
"Uh, Lilly," Max said. "I'm not too sure I'm into this kind of thing. I kind of like being on top."

  
Lilly unbuttoned his shirt, licked up his chest, brushed her lips against his then rolled off the bed. "Sorry, cowboy. No pony rides for you tonight." The hotel door shut with a bang.

  
"Wait," Max yelled. "Lilly? Lilly? Come on Lilly! This isn't funny. Tabitha, is this some sort of joke? Lilly? Lilly?"


	45. Humiliation

Chapter 45: Humiliation 

PLEASE Read and Review! Thanks for the feedback, it is very much appreciated.

***

The sound of the front door slamming and glass breaking sent everyone from all side of the mansion to the entryway. Max shoved through the crowd of frightened faces and stomped up the stairs, leaving them to stare at the mutilated front door. He yanked open the door to his and Ryan's room and threw his hat over to his bed. Ryan did not even glace up from his book.

  
"Bad night?" He asked.

  
"You have absolutely no idea." Max said.

  
Ryan put the book down and sat up. "Spill."

  
"I met this girl, and we went to a hotel and she…she." Max could not finish. He drove his fist through the wall and every light, every computer, every TV set in the mansion blinked off.

  
"What the heck is going on?" Anthony said walking into their room.

  
"Max had a bad night," Ryan said.

  
"Well, tell him not to PMS on our house," Andie said joining them. "He just shut off Cerebro."

  
The sound of Max's fist hitting the wall echoed through the house and the lights came on again. "Somebody better stop me because I'm gonna kill Andie," he shouted.

  
Andie put up a hand and Max fell backwards onto his rear end. He let out a howl.

  
"Wow Andie how'd you do that?" Ryan asked.

  
"New revelation. Max has water in his body, therefore, I can make him do whatever I want."

  
"Well that's fantastic for you miss Daugherty, but I'm-"

  
"Still PMSing, we know."

  
"Anthony, look what you've done to her," Ryan said.

  
"What, me?" Anthony asked.

  
"That's right I did get it from you," Andie said pointing up at him. 

Max hit the floor with the palm of his hand and all the lights went out again.

  
"Max!"

  
"Everyone shut up," Max said. "I would like to whine for a little while. When Andie and Hope whine because they are PMSing everyone listens to them, but when I whine because some psycho girl uses belts to tie me to a hotel bed, and I have to wait for Olga the Swedish hotel maid to come rescue me, nobody shuts up."

  
For a moment no one said a word. The only sound came from the wind brushing the branches against the window. Finally, Max hit the floor again and the lights came back on. His eyes moved from person to person, and then he yelled, "Don't just stare at me say something!"

  
Anthony exploded into laughter. "She tied you to a bed dude, that sucks," he said.

  
"Someone finally lassoed the cowboy," Andie joined in.

  
"It's not funny," Max said. "It's embarrassing."

  
"Actually," Ryan said. "It is pretty funny."

  
Max raised his eyebrows at Ryan.

  
"What?" He asked. "If Anthony came in and told you come girl had done that to him-"

  
"Not that one could," Anthony said.

  
"Hypothetically speaking," Ryan said. "But if Anthony came in and told you what you just told us you'd be on the floor laughing too." 

Max sighed and stood up. He walked over to his bed and sunk down into it, picking up his hat and dropping it on one of the bedposts. Ryan swung his feet over the other side of his bed and rested his elbows on his knees.

  
"You're pretty embarrassed aren't ya dude?"

  
Max grinned. "Guess my pride's like, mutilated," he said.

  
"You didn't know her did you?" Ryan asked.

  
The skin on Max's ears turned bright red and her shoved his black hair out of his eyes. "She's one of Tabitha's friends, a new recruit for the Brotherhood. Chances are, she attends our school."

  
Ryan tried to hide his laugh but failed. "That sucks."

  
"Oh no, it sucks for her," Max said. "She's just throwing gasoline on a flame. I'm gonna get her somehow."

  
"You'd better check out what her power is first Max," Ryan said. "You don't want to get more hurt than you already are."

  
Max threw his physics book at him and fell back onto his bed. "Probably should have asked that before I met her."

  
"Just don't do anything you'll regret," Ryan said.

  
Too late, Max thought.  



	46. Discrimination

Chapter 46: Discrimination

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

The racket of the teenagers echoing in the large hallways pounded against Max's eardrums the next morning as he pushed his way through the crowd. His eyes burned, his head pounded and the bagel he had eaten for breakfast threatened to exit his stomach if he were not careful. Max had experienced hangovers before but this one topped them all. Every noise felt like glass slicing through his head, every new degree of light sent more tears to his eyes. Max shoved his way through the crowd despite the curses and insults that were thrown at him as a result. As he reached his first period class all thoughts of crashing down into his desk for a fifty-minute nap dissipated when he saw…

Her. 

He felt the muscles in his jaw bunch up and his eyes narrow. She stood in a corner surrounded by a group of guys and when she saw Max she smiled and waved her fingers at him. Max stomped in her direction and shoved the nearest boy out of the way. By the look on his face and his size, they new better than to object.

  
"Hiya cowboy, what can I do ya for?" Lilly asked.

  
"Thought you might want your belt back," he said throwing the black piece of leather at her. It bounced off and fell to the floor.

  
"Oh so I guess one of the hotel maids heard you crying like a baby and came to your rescue huh Max?" Lilly bent down to pick up her belt. She bent in such a way that Max could see clear down her white shirt. He wanted her even more.

  
"Look Lilly, I don't know why you did what you did." He stopped and turned to the guys who stood staring at them. Max pointed a finger at their feet and sent electric shocks under them. "Run along!" He yelled as they ran down the hallway, towards Principal Kelly's office. "Now I don't know why you did what you did, Lilly, but it wasn't nice."

  
"Ooo, stinger," Lilly said smiling. She leaned into his ear. "But you know it turned you on."

  
"Despite that factor," Max said, trying to stay angry. "It was still mean."

  
"Gosh I'm sorry Max, I will repent of all my evil way," Lilly said.

  
Max rolled his eyes. "Okay, what I do is bad, but what you did is worse," he said. "You lead me on and I didn't even get the pleasure of sleeping with you."

  
"I was very well informed of your reputation before I met you," Lilly said. "I wasn't going to let you get any that easy."

  
"Tabitha," Max growled.

  
"You see the fact of the matter is Max, you're the kind of guy girls play around with, you don't take them home to mom. I toyed with you, left you tied to a bed, and I'm not takin' you home to mom."

  
Max grinned to hide the pain she had just inflicted on him. Those words cut deeper than the embarrassment of being tied to a hotel bed and being saved by a Swedish maid. He knew that what she said was true, he wasn't the kind of guy girls want to stay with, he was the one-nightstand guy.

  
No one wanted to grow old with him, because he never let them get past the hotel room. But he hid behind his grin and tried to ignore the pain. "So I suppose that a night with you is a privilege," Max said.

  
"Like the hat," Lilly said.

  
"Like the hat. So, how do I earn this privilege?" Max asked.

  
"There he is!"

  
Max and Lilly turned to see the boys Max had run off earlier standing behind Principal Kelly. Max rolled his eyes, fully aware of what was to come next.

  
"You," Principal Kelly said with disgust.

  
"You," Max mocked. "Can I help you Mr. Kelly? Can I restart your car again? Or can I fix the computers that short circuited again?"

  
"You can come with me to my office," he said.

  
"Why?" Max asked. "Because these two lame brains can't mind their own business?"

  
"Max, I don't want to have to call security. Duncan and Roger say that you used your powers to start a fight, now come with me to my office."

  
"Do you see a fight here?" Max asked. "No, didn't think so. All I see are to little cry babies who had to run to the principal for help."

  
At this Duncan yelled and sent a punch at Max's face. Max caught his hand and sent an electric shock through it. Duncan yelped and stumbled backwards right into the massive security guard. The other on put a hand on Max's shoulder.

  
Max glared up at the giant man. "You wanna take your hands off me Godzilla?"

  
"Come on Max, let's not make a scene," the man said.

  
Max sighed. His head felt like it would pop it hurt so bad, and at this point he really did not feel like arguing, but he also did not feel like sitting in Principal Kelly's office enduring a long speech about the scummy mutants destroying his school. Max flicked the guard's oversized hand from his shoulder and walked past Principal Kelly. "Lead the way  
chief," he said. "And somebody better get Duncan a band aid, he might have broken a nail."

  
Air rushed over his hot face as he shoved open the door to the principal's office. Some of the plaques on the wall rotated as Principal Kelly slammed it shut and stomped behind his desk. Max fell into the chair across from him and folded his arms over his chest.

  
Principal Kelly put his hands on the thick table and leaned forward to stare at Max. His two caterpillar eyebrows formed a "V" over his dark eyes. Gravity had taken over the corners of his mouth and his whole face sagged down with it.

  
"What in the name of all that is holy possessed you to act that way, Trask?" His voice quivered. "I don't even know why all you mutants continue to come to this school, you're not welcome! If it were up to me I'd have you all locked up, or sent off to live on some distant planet, away from us!"

  
"Gosh," Max said. "I thought we ended segregation."

  
"This is a very different situation."

  
"Like heck it is," Max said.

  
"Regardless, you're suspended," Principal Kelly said.

  
"Why? Because I sent a few volts of electricity at the star quarterback's feet? A few volts that didn't even touch his feet just the floor?"

  
"I'm not going to argue with you Trask, you have three days suspension."  
  
"Fantastic."  



	47. Bored and Suspended

Chapter 47: Bored and Suspended

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

Light on, light off, light on, light off. 

Max tapped the wall with his knuckle and watched the overhead light wink at him. He felt pretty lucky, getting suspended when he did, because the professor was out of town for the day and Logan had disappeared, so no one was at the house to chew him out about being suspended. 

However, he also had absolutely nothing to do. No clubs are open during the day, no one's home who's worth having anyway, I have a hangover so I don't really want to drink,  
I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored. He looked over at the clock on the wall. 

10:00. Fantastic. Let's see what's on daytime TV. 

Max pointed at the television and flipped through the channels. 

Soap opera, cartoon, talk show, Maury, televangelist, Barney, cartoon, the news. 

He stopped at the news. A blond announcer's face filled part of the screen. In the corner were the words, The Sentinel Project. He felt his stomach twist into a giant knot. "Please God no," he said aloud.

  
The reporter spoke. "Officials say that Dr. George Dobson has bailed Bolivar Trask out of prison in light of the new mutant crisis."

  
"What mutant crisis?" Max asked the television.

  
"Two days ago a mutant burned down an entire city block in down town New York. The once jailed Trask is only allowed to use the Sentinels to defend humans against any mutants who get out of control. Officials say that the Sentinels will not go after any law abiding mutants. In other news-" click.

  
"Like heck they won't target law-abiding mutants." Max stood and walked into the kitchen. He pulled the refrigerator door open and searched for a carbonated beverage. The news did not help his already queasy stomach. He grabbed a coke can off the shelf and then searched the freezer. I feel like a girl with PMS, Andie and Hope always raid the  
fridge when they are PMSing. 

Rocky Road sounds good. 

He pulled the carton out from behind the frozen meat. He sat down on one of the bar  
stools and popped the top off. "Law-abiding mutants my left foot," he mumbled. "My father will find some way to bend the rule and rid the world of mutants. Don't know how he will, but he will. Of course if Ryan has anything to say about it. Wait, Ryan doesn't go to school, Ryan's upstairs, I have someone to complain to."

  
Max dropped the spoon in the carton and ran up the stairs. He shoved open the door to his and Ryan's room and clapped on the lights. A groan came from the lump of covers on the floor and a hand pulled the sheets over his blond head.

  
"Hey Ryan, it's time to wake up and talk to me," Max said ripping the covers off of him.

  
"It's ten o'clock in the morning, I'm out of school, I want to sleep," Ryan grumbled.

  
"Your friend George Dobson just bailed Trask out of jail and they reinstated the Sentinel project," Max said.

  
Ryan sat up his brown eyes wide open, his jaw hanging. "Please tell me you were trying to wake me up and all you just said is not true."

  
"It's true," Max said. "Scout's honor."

  
"You never were a boy scout," Ryan said.

  
Max shrugged and then sat down on the floor. Red lines from his pillow branched out from Ryan's eyes and his hair stuck out in all sorts of places. "So, what do you think we should do?" Max asked.

  
Ryan rubbed his face then scratched his head. "Well, the professor will be back tonight, so I suggest we wait for him," Ryan said. "I don't have any other suggestions except that we watch his every move."

  
"But he can hide things from the publics eye, you know that better than anyone. We'd have to send in spies to get any real information."

  
"That's not a half bad idea."  
  



	48. Chicken

Chapter 48: Chicken

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

The cold wind brushed the loose hair that stuck out from Max's cowboy hat off of his forehead as he walked through the park in the direction of the club. In the distance cars sped along the freeway and in the trees birds gossiped back and forth. 

Max sighed. 

The night felt so peaceful he almost did not want to enter the roar of the club. The idea  
of sitting in the park listening to the night sounds, feeling the soft droplets of snow, without thinking about his father, or Principal Kelly, or Duncan, or Lilly, or anything at all was so intoxicating that he almost sat down. For a moment he even stopped at one of the benches and put a hand to the soft wood. But then his thoughts moved to places he  
did not want them to go, his memories to events to dark to relive, and he moved on towards the club.

  
The roar of music and babbling people grew as Max reached the street.

  
He crossed the median and began across the parking lot. A shiny red mustang convertible stopped in front of him, its headlight's blinding him. He made an attempt to walk past it but it back up and moved in front of him again. A quiet growl escaped his throat and he cracked his knuckles preparing to short-circuit the engine.

  
"Hey Max!"

  
Duncan, Max thought.

  
"Let's play chicken muty!" The engine rumbled and surged forward.

  
/There's no way he'd hit me/, Max thought. /He wouldn't sink that low./

  
He crossed his arms and waited for the car to swerve to the right or left. It didn't, but as it hit him he had enough time to send electric bolts through it.


	49. Duncaninduced Migraine

Chapter 49: Duncan-induced Migraine

PLEASE Read and Review!

***

Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! 

Max woke up to the sound of monitors beeping and hushed whispers. He opened his eyes and looked over to his left. The professor spoke with a fat man in a doctor's suit. He looked to his right. Ryan sat in a chair resting his chin on his hands. His eyes were shut and from the quiet sound of his breathing Max thought he was asleep.

  
"Hey Ryan," Max said. "Who died?" His voice came out rough, like sand paper.

  
Ryan's eyes popped open and he sat upright. "Max, you're awake."

  
"Very perceptive Ryan, now who died?"

  
"We thought you had," Ryan said. "Duncan hit you with his car."

  
Max felt an itch arise on his nose. "Oh yeah, he said he wanted to play chicken." Max tried to raise his hand to scratch his nose but his arm felt like a weight and he could not lift it.

  
"So why didn't you move?" Ryan asked.

  
Max tried the other hand; it hurt as badly as his left. Nuts. "I didn't think he'd actually hit me." He raised his arm slowly into his line of vision. The skin was red with burns but it finally reached his nose. 

Success!

  
Ryan rolled his eyes. "Well you'll be happy to know that you destroyed his car with your electric shock but he's not in jail because he claims that you just walked out in the middle of the road and he couldn't stop."

  
"Excuse me?" Max said. "And they believed him? Just get any doctor to look at me and they'll know I was facing the car."

  
Ryan shrugged. "He said you turned to face him when he honked at you."

  
Max groaned. "What I wouldn't give to tear that jerk limb from limb."

  
He sighed. "No witnesses I guess?"

  
"Nope."

  
"So it's his word against mine. That's fabulous."

  
Ryan nodded.

  
"So what's the damage?" Max asked.

  
"Uh the doctor said that your right arm is broken, your left arm is sprained, you have a slight concussion, a few broken ribs and some burns, complementary of your electric shock, but that's about it," Ryan said.

  
"Max, how are you feeling?"

  
Max turned to see the professor rolling up to his bed.

  
"Great," he said. "Considering I was just hit by a car and the guy who hit me got away with it."

  
The professor smiled, but his eyes showed no joy. Max recognized that smile. He had seen it appear so many times on his mother's or Ryan's face. They gave that smile to reassure that somehow things would work out, but at the moment they saw no light. They gave that smile to say, "I know life's not fair, but I'm going to keep on pushing." 

Max had never given that smile. He always hid his pain, and he had gotten very  
good at it.

  
"I'm sorry Max," Xavier said. "But no one saw what happened but you, and Duncan's story has no holes, except for your side of it."

  
Max shook his head. "But they won't take my word over his because I'm a mutant."

  
No one said anything. 

The sick truth dripped from those words and filled the air like a foul stench, a gas that worked it's way into their lungs and tried to suffocate them. So many injustices came to pass simply because they had mutant abilities; Ryan's family was brutally murdered, Ryan was locked away and tortured for three years, Andie's brother Asher was forced to run away from his family, Andie was forced to leave all she knew and live with the people of her kind, like a ghetto. 

It made Max sick. 

They could stop it all if they threw away their morals and simply overtook mankind, but he knew better. Not all of the humans felt the way Duncan, or his father, or George Dobson felt, some thought that mutants were cool; he had a lot of good friends who were humans. He could not generalize about humans as some of them did about mutants. Max would rather suffer than sink to his father's level.  
  
The sound of high heels clip clopping across the tile floor frightened away the silence and they all looked to the door.

  
"Lilly?" Max asked.

  
"Hey cowboy."

  
"Uh, we'll leave you two alone," Ryan said. He and the professor left the room.

  
Lilly circled the hospital bed and crossed her arms over her chest. A smile overtook her red lips. "So you thought he wouldn't hit you huh?"

  
"No I really didn't think he'd sink that low," Max said laughing. It hurt his chest. "What are you doing here?"

  
"Principal Kelly interrupted our conversation," she said. "I need to tell you my requirements for the privilege of a night with me."

  
"Oh, so I get to take a shot at it huh?"

  
Lilly nodded.

  
Max waved his hand. "Proceed."

  
"Okay, first no sleeping with any other girls, if I catch you, which with my powers I will, the deal is off."

  
"Hold on a second-"

  
"No talking 'till I'm finished," Lilly said. "Second, I don't want to hear about former sexual escapades, this is a turn off and will get you nowhere. Third, when I talk, you listen. Fourth, what I say goes, you are no longer in charge. Fifth, if you see me with a man, don't question me, I will not deal with your jealousy. Sixth, this is commitment free; once I'm done with you it's over. Seventh, flattery is always good as long as it's truth-flattery, not trying-to-get-in-my-pants-flattery. Eighth, don't piss me off. Ninth, make love don't fall in love. Don't fall in love with me because I will not fall in love with you. Tenth, no sex until I think that you have been successful in following all the rules. If you have been a good dog you will be rewarded."

  
Max laughed. "Dude you're not worth it," he said.

  
Lilly sighed and started to walk to the door, her heels still clicking.

  
"I knew you couldn't do it," she said.

  
"Now wait just a second," Max said sitting up. A sharp pain ran up his rib cage and he ground his teeth. 

/Stupid Duncan./

  
Lilly's heel scraped the floor as she turned. She raised an eyebrow.

  
"Yes?"

  
Max stuck a hand out. More pain. I hate you Duncan. "You got yourself a deal."

  
The corner of Lilly's mouth stretched up. "Well good for you." She slid her soft hand into his and they shook. Then, she leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "When you're out of the hospital give me a call." As she moved away she let her hand glide down his arm.

  
/So that's how we're gonna play, huh?/ Max thought. /Well Miss Beckham,  
I'll follow your rules and I'll win. We'll see who conquers who./  



	50. CRUNCH

Chapter 50: CRUNCH

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

*          *          *

Andie crossed her arms and shook her head. I can't believe I agreed to  
do this, she thought. That morning Kurt had freaked out because of the  
serious lack of food that inhabited the freezer and pantries so she, not  
being in school, volunteered to go to the store. However, seeing as she  
had no means of transportation, Professor Xavier convinced Gambit to  
drive. From her prior knowledge of him, he was without a doubt,  
annoying. But, since she had promised to go, she resigned herself to  
fate and stepped into his car.  
"So let's go," she said, making some effort to make the ride as painless  
as possible.  
"No worries Cherie," the Cajun said. "This is going to be the most fun  
you've ever had shopping."  
Wonderful, Andie thought. Though I think Prom night definitely will  
beat this one no problem. The night of her prom she and her group  
decided to go to the grocery store and buy the supplies to make a fruit  
pizza. They ended up racing up and down the food isles in shopping  
carts and ultimately got thrown out. What fun that had been. She  
sighed, not even worrying about what Gambit thought. Let's get this  
over with.  
* * *  
After $100 worth of destroyed groceries and two hours of clean up Andie  
and Gambit headed out of the Grocery Store; Andie red faced and sore  
cheeked. "That could not have gone much worse," she said. "I've never  
seen a store manager turn that color red before.come to think of it I've  
never seen anyone turn that color red before."  
Gambit grinned and Andie could not help but admitting how good-looking  
he really was. "Told you we'd have fun Cherie."  
They threw the brown bags into the trunk and prepared to leave. Andie  
grabbed Gambit's keys, hopped into the driver seat and started the car.  
Gambit had to run half way out the door to catch up. "What do you think  
you're doin' girly?" He asked.  
"I'm driving," she said.  
Gambit sighed. "Very well, I'll just lay back and rest my eyes."  
Andie nodded; she had won. Pay back was so sweet.  
She drove towards the mansion taking in the beautiful snow covered  
ground, the amazing blue sky, the little squirrels running across the  
street-CRUNCH! Andie screamed. "Oh my gosh I killed it!"  
Gambit flew against his seat belt as she slammed on the breaks. "What  
in the-"  
Andie hopped out of the car and knelt beside the dead rodent. "Oh, oh,  
oh.why."  
Gambit leaned across the seats. "What's wrong sweetheart?"  
Andie pointed at the squirrel but said nothing. Her eyes grew huge and  
her lip quivered.  
"It's just a little rat Cherie," Gambit said. "There are many more."  
Tears overflowed Andie's eyes causing their color to deepen.  
"Everything I touch dies or leaves me!" She cried.  
Gambit shook his head and got out of the car. He guided her to the  
other side and made her sit in the passenger seat. Then he looked her  
in the eyes. "Is this about somethin' else Cherie?" He asked.  
Andie crossed her arms and turned away. "None of your business."  
Gambit groaned and slid into the driver's seat. He then pulled to the  
side of the road out of the way of traffic. "Listen kiddo it is my  
business because I'm makin' it my business. Now what is wrong?"  
Andie sighed. "It's.Asher.and Anthony." She covered her face.  
"Anthony?" Gambit asked. "Now I understand Asher but what's this got  
to do with Anthony? What's that boy done now?"  
Andie's cheeks burned. "Well.we sort of.slept together and now.we can't  
talk.or.something."  
Gambit fell back against the seat in disbelief. "What? I thought you  
two hated each other."  
"We did."  
He paused and thought for a moment. "Well Cherie let me tell you  
somethin', men are idiots."  
Andie looked up.  
"All except for me of course, but most men are. Sometimes even they get  
scared and don't know what to do. Of course there's always the chance  
that they're being scum and merely usin' girls for their own pleasure  
and in that case I will have to beat him senseless. However, I'm  
willin' to guess that he's just scared. He couldn't give up a pretty  
thing like you so quickly, no one could."  
Andie felt more tears slid down her cheeks. She just wasn't sure.not  
anymore.  
  



	51. Evil Deeds

Chapter 51: Evil Deeds

*          *          *

"Mr. Dobson, what are your plans exactly? How do you intend on ridding  
the world of mutants without us getting thrown into prison?"  
A smile fattened Dobson's cheeks. "Well Mr. Trask I think the first  
thing we should do is get rid of our biggest opposition. I've created a  
prison for mutants. None could escape if we were to get them into it.  
That with the help of Stryker's formula could help us destroy all  
mutants, cure the illness."  
"So, who do we start with? And how do you propose we do it?"  
"The Morlocks."  
Trask's laugh bounced off the walls of the office. "Oh yeah, and how  
are we going to get them huh? Especially with out Charles Xavier  
finding out?"  
"That Mr. Trask, if I knew that then you would have hired me," Dobson  
said. He leaned forward in his chair. "We don't want to kill them  
immediately, not until we have all of them."  
Now the smile formed on Trask's lips. "Mr. Dobson, I believe I have a  
plan."  
  



	52. Truth

Chapter 52: Truth

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

The tips of Ryan's finger's whitened as her slowly drug his pencil  
across the paper. The gray graphite curved down to a small arch and  
then back up in the other direction. He drew semicircles on either side  
of the topless oval then brushed the pencil around it. Wisps of hair  
formed around the face. Eyes appeared then lips, then a nose. He  
erased the nose; he never liked drawing them, they always looked funny.  
The pencil arced again creating elegant arched eyebrows, the kind only  
seen on movie stars. He erased the chin-too fat. It curved down again,  
this time thinner. Ryan brushed the pencil down and then out in a soft  
curve. Then he did it again-she had shoulders now. He skipped the rest  
of the body-he didn't like drawing that as much either. But then he  
reached the hands. Beautiful hands. He wondered if she knew how  
beautiful her hands were. He drew the long soft fingers, the thin  
wrists, the long nails. Done.  
Ryan leaned back and scanned the drawing, still needed a nose. He tried  
again. Good enough. Not quite like hers though. The hands worked- he  
loved to draw hands. His mom had great hands, and they were so soft,  
and they always smelled good. Hope had great hands too. He loved it  
when he held her hands in his. So soft and warm.  
The door whined open and Anthony walked in. "Whacha doin'?" He asked  
pulling a chair up beside Ryan's bed. It creaked as he sat down. He  
leaned forward over the back of it.  
"Drawing," Ryan said.  
"Drawing what?"  
Ryan's ears reddened slightly. "A picture."  
Anthony laughed. "Thanks Captain Obvious. What are you drawing?"  
"Hope," Ryan said.  
"That's kind of abstract isn't it, how do you draw that?"  
"No I mean Hope Hart, you know the "Amazonian Queen"?  
Anthony nodded. He reached out and took the drawing pad. "It looks  
like her. So why didn't you draw the rest of her body?"  
Ryan's shoulders raised and fell. "It never turns out right, they  
always look like deformed. I don't know."  
The door opened again and Hope bounced in. The light shone off her  
silky blue robe and glittered off her shiny necklace-a heart made of  
diamonds. Ryan had given it to her for an early Christmas present,  
since she'd be going home for the holidays. Hope grinned and let the  
shoulders of the robe slide past her shoulders. Both Ryan and Anthony's  
eyes widened.  
"Ryan, I want you to draw me with this necklace on, only this necklace  
on." Dramatically she threw off the robe. Ryan slapped a hand over his  
eyes. Anthony laughed."  
"It's okay virgin boy-she's not in the nude," he said jabbing Ryan in  
the ribs.  
Ryan opened his eyes to see Hope's smiling face. It reddened as she  
laughed. She wore a white sweatshirt with no collar-like they did in  
the eighties- and a pair of jeans. She pointed a long finger at him.  
"You should have seen the look on your face."  
"Darn," Anthony said snapping his fingers.  
Hope clocked him in the back of the head and plopped onto the bed beside  
Ryan. Ryan crossed his arms. "Are you making fun of me Miss Hart?"  
"Why yes, as a matter of fact I am Mr. Walker," Hope said. She reached  
out a long fingernail and brushed his nose.  
"You're gonna pay for that." Ryan surged forward and tackled Hope.  
They fell on the floor legs flailing. Ryan landed on his back and all  
the air gushed from his lungs. Hope dug her nails into his sides  
mercilessly tickling him.  
"No fair," Ryan yelled. "I'm still a cripple." He crumpled into a ball  
laughing so hard that his abs hurt.  
"Are you gonna let a girl beat you Ry.?" Anthony asked.  
"I.can't.help it, she found my weakness!"  
Anthony pointed at them. "Hey, you two better be careful, that's how me  
and Andie."  
Hope and Ryan stopped and stared up at Anthony.  
"I have to go." Anthony jumped out of the chair and disappeared through  
the door.  
Hope and Ryan looked at each other. "What?"  
"You talk to Andie and I'll talk to Anthony," Ryan said pulling himself  
up and grabbing his crutches.  
"Do you think it's out business?" Hope asked.  
"No."  
"Oh well."  
* * *  
Ryan moved as fast as his crutches could pull him but he still had a  
hard time catching up with Anthony. He finally had to yell at him to  
slow down. They stopped by Anthony's room and went inside. Ryan  
assumed the chair position and Anthony sat on the bed.  
"So spill dude," Ryan said.  
Anthony rubbed his giant hands together and rested his elbows on his  
knees. "Well two nights ago, me and Andie had sex."  
* * *  
Hope knocked on Andie's door.  
"What?"  
"Andie it's Hope, can we talk?"  
Pause. "It depends, does it have anything to do with Mr. Schamaluffel?"  
  
"Yes."  
"Forget it."  
"Andie!"  
"Fine, the door's open."  
Hope pushed the chunk of wood out of her way and walked into Andie's  
room. Clothes lay all over the floor-a defeated lump of soldiers lying  
on the battlefield. Andie lay on her bed, her arms crossed over her  
chest, her eyes glued to the ceiling. Her hair, which was now blond  
again, stuck out in all directions and she wore a gray sports bra and  
gray cloth pants. She did not look at Hope when she entered.  
Hope sat on her knees and rested her elbows on the bed.  
"This had better be good," Andie said.  
"What's going on with you and Anthony?"  
"We had sex."  
* * *  
Ryan nodded his head. "You sure get straight to the point don't you."  
"Yep."  
"So why did you?"  
"Why did I do what?"  
"Sleep with her?" Ryan asked. "I thought you two hated each other."  
"So did I."  
Ryan waited, but Anthony didn't say anything. "So why did you not want  
me and Hope to know?"  
Anthony rubbed his chin with his fingers and shook his head. "I didn't  
want to get another lecture about what a stupid kid I am."  
"Dude, who am I to call you a stupid kid?"  
"You're still Mr. Perfect, even if you're cool."  
Ryan shook his head. "You still think I'm perfect huh?" He said.  
"Well let me tell you somethin' Anthony, next to me you probably look  
like Einstein. I never passed one class in high school with more than a  
"D", except for art class. I smashed a kid with powers I could not  
control. I let a little kid die because I was stupid enough to think  
that Stryker and Dobson would let me go that easily. I.I sound like a  
girl on PMS don't I?"  
"Yeah."  
"Thanks," Ryan said. "Look, my point is, we all do things that maybe  
look stupid or are stupid but we all do them."  
"Now you sound like a psychologist."  
"So how do you feel about that?" Ryan asked.  
"I feel scared."  
"Why?"  
"I don't want to discuss this," Anthony said.  
"Okay." Ryan grabbed his crutches and started to stand.  
* * *  
"What do you mean?" Hope asked.  
Andie's green eyes rolled over to her friend. "I don't know how to put  
into any clearer terms." Her abs contracted as she slid onto her side  
and faced Hope,. "We had sex Hope. When a guy and a girl like each  
other they do that.but apparently he didn't like me that, much because  
now he won't talk to me!"  
"I though you hated him!"  
"So did I."  
* * *  
"Hey I'm not done talkin' to you," Anthony said.  
Ryan grinned and sat back down.  
"I did it because I like her." Anthony said his voice laced with a  
certain annoyance.  
* * *  
"So why did you do it?" Hope asked.  
"I like him okay!"  
* * *  
"And how do you feel about that?" Ryan asked putting on his serious yet  
concerned face. But when Anthony narrowed his ice blue eyes at him he  
dropped the act. "Just kidding," he said. "Well, in an attempt to be the  
voice of reason here.just because you like someone doesn't mean you have  
sex with them."  
* * *  
"So.what was it like?" Hope asked.  
Andie pulled the pillow over her head and whined.  
"What?"  
"You're not helping Hope," she said.  
"Can you blame me? I haven't have sex in a really-" Hope slapped a hand  
over her mouth.  
The pillow slowly moved out of the way. Andie's mouth dropped and her  
eyebrows rose. "Well you can't hide it now." She rolled to her side  
again. "So you and Ryan huh?"  
"No, he.turned me down."  
* * *  
"Um yeah, that is what you do dude," Anthony said.  
"Um, no. Look, you like Andie right? And you don't want her to end up  
with a baby right?"  
"Definitely not!"  
"So how do avoid this problem?"  
"Depo-provera?"  
Ryan shook his head. "You know how often that stuff works? What if it  
doesn't? What if just one time it doesn't? You'll end up with another  
kid."  
"You can't be a total saint, you can't tell me you've never done it?"  
* * *  
"If not Ryan then who?"  
"Oh, well.um."  
"Spill it Hope."  
"It was Max okay!"  
* * *  
Ryan drummed his thumbs against the back of the chair. He looked at the  
floor and rubbed the back of his neck.  
"You mean you've never done it with Hope?"  
Ryan shook his head.  
"Anybody?"  
Ryan shook his head.  
"You looser! You have a beautiful girl with the.with the.Amazon  
thing.and you haven't?"  
"Nope-"  
"Well why not?"  
* * *  
"MAX! What were you smoking?" Andie asked. "You knew what kind of  
rep. he had when he first got here!"  
Hope put the palms of her hands to her forehead. "I know, I know. But,  
you have to admit that cowboy thing's pretty sexy-"  
"Hope! I've lost so much respect for you. You did it with a  
self-proclaimed man whore!"  
Max peeked in. "I heard my name, what are y'all talking about me for?"  
"We're talking about you and Hope doing.bad things!"  
"Oh, so you finally admitted it to somebody?"  
"Out, out, out!" Hope slammed the door in his face.  
"If it's any consolation you were really good!"  
"Shut up Max!"  
* * *  
"Because I would never want to hurt her," Ryan said.  
Anthony waited. Ryan did not expound. "So what are you saying? By  
expressing my feelings for Andie I hurt her?"  
* * *  
Hope pulled a chair beside Andie's bed and pushed her hair from her  
face. She looked at Andie. "Did you sleep with Anthony because of  
Asher?" She asked.  
Andie groaned and smacked Hope with her pillow. For a moment her green  
eyes studied the ceiling. Hope decided to keep her mouth shut and let  
Andie answer if she wanted, when she wanted. A sigh pushed itself out  
through Andie's lips and she turned to Hope. "Maybe that's part of it,"  
she said. "But.I do like Anthony."  
"Why?" Hope asked. "He's got a baby!"  
Andie pointed a finger at her. "Be careful not to cast any stones  
missy, you slept with Max."  
"I know."  
* * *  
"Anthony, I don't want to tell you what to do and I don't want to sound  
like I'm preachin' at you, but I believe sex is a beautiful thing that  
should be reserved for marriage," Ryan said. "I know that now-a-days  
marriage is not the sacred thing it once was, but there's more of a  
commitment when you're married."  
"Sure there is."  
Ryan stared at him but when Anthony did not continue he did not probe.  
"Look, if you like Andie, I mean, if you really like her pursue her.  
Don't just have sex with her and leave it there, go after her. Who  
knows, maybe you two were meant for each other."  
* * *  
"I'm sorry Hope, I don't mean to make you feel bad, I'm just so  
frustrated."  
Hope took Andie's hand. "I understand."


	53. Kiss it Better

Chapter 53: Kiss it Better

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Andie took a deep breath and raised her hand to the door. There's no  
way I can do this, there's no way I can do this, there's no way.she  
thought. But the door opened.  
"Andie."  
"Anthony."  
For a moment the two stared at each other, not knowing what to say both  
thinking that other was without a doubt.beautiful in every way. Anthony  
reached down, pulled her to him and kissed her. She held him tightly.  
She felt the tears fall; they heard each others hearts beating, their  
souls uniting.  
  



	54. Electric Shock

Chapter 54: Electric Shock

"Hey Cowboy!"  
Max turned to face the voice, painfully. The fire at the back of his  
neck still flared up every time he moved. When he saw the owner of the  
voice the corner of his mouth turned up. "Hey Lil', how's it goin'?"  
He asked.  
She touched a long fingernail to his nose. "Not bad, but you never  
called me when you got home from the hospital. I'm a bit  
disappointed." Her lower lip pouched out and she looked up at him with  
big eyes.  
"Sorry kiddo but the Prof. grounded me when he found out I got suspended  
and there is no sneaking behind his back," Max said.  
Lilly sighed. "So someone can tame the bronco," she said.  
"He cheats."  
"Uh-huh."  
Max continued his journey toward the double doors of the school; he did  
not want to stay one more minute in the prison. Lilly followed him.  
"Max, I have to tell you, you look terrible."  
"Gee thanks," Max said. "That's normally the effect getting hit by a  
car has on a person." He raised his voice as they passed Duncan and his  
minions. Duncan's blond eyebrows met in a V and his mouth flattened  
into a thin line.  
"So Trask, do you make it a habit of jumping in front of people's cars  
and destroying them?"  
Pain burned his jaw as Max clenched his teeth. He's not worth it, he's  
not worth it, he's not worth it. Max repeated over and over in his  
brain. He shoved his left hand in his pocket to stop himself from doing  
something he might regret. The electricity tingled at the ends of his  
fingers pleading with him to let it loose, but he continued walking.  
"What, you don't got anything to say Trask? No wise crack comments?  
Huh? Come on you wimp!"  
Max turned to face Duncan. For a moment he just stared at him. The  
tingling built up stronger and stronger in his hands until he thought he  
might electrocute everyone in the room. But he just pushed Duncan up  
against a locker and held him there. "Be careful Duncan, you don't have  
your car to hide behind right now."  
Duncan grinned but Max saw his pupils get smaller, he saw the fear. If  
his father taught him anything he taught him how to read fear in other  
people's faces. Duncan was about to wet himself.  
Max chuckled, then grabbed Duncan's neck. "The next time you do  
something like that, to me or anyone else, you'll have about a million  
kilowatts of electricity sent through some vital organs in your body,"  
he said patting Duncan's face. "Don't think that's a threat, it's a  
promise."  
He turned and walked away.  
Lilly smiled at Duncan and hooked her thumbs in his belt loops. "Merry  
Christmas."  
  



	55. Healing Old Wounds

Chapter 55: Healing Old Wounds

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. The pink eraser of the pencil bounced off  
of the wooden counter top. Bits of pink flakes covered the area and  
bounced each time the eraser did. Down stairs the door slammed so hard  
that all the pictures on the walls shook, threatening to let gravity  
pull them to the floor. Not that it mattered; the mounds of clothes  
piles up would soften their landing.  
The air outside the door moved and color-black, white, and blue- shot by  
in a quick but dull haze. The door sucked shut. It opened again and  
Pietro stood by Asher's bed.  
"What'sthematterwithyou?" He asked; his arms crossed over his chest.  
Asher raised a black eyebrow and took the pencil between his fingers.  
The ends started to smoke.  
"Maybe I'll leave you to your thoughts pal," Pietro said. "See ya."  
Asher grinned as the speed demon took off. Pietro-good for a laugh, if  
good for anything. He threw the pencil onto the table. It bounced then  
rolled off onto a pair of boxers. Asher shook his head. Andie would  
never have let him leave his clothes on the floor like that. Andie.  
The bed groaned as he rolled onto his back. He tried not to think about  
Andie, it only hurt. But the thoughts would rush over him like an  
avalanche. He remembered the night he ran away. No-he didn't want to  
think about that, he didn't want to remember the look on her face, or  
the way she clung to his waist, or the tears that soaked his shirt. He  
did not want to hear that little voice begging him to take her too.  
Asher leaned over and turned on the radio as loud as the knob turned.  
The base shook the table and all other sounds went silent-but his  
thoughts continued to flow. Andie-in her little pink dress-perched on  
the edge of the window, clinging to its sides like a little monkey.  
Andie-her tear stained face trying so desperately not too look  
terrified.  
Asher stood and clicked off the radio. He looked out his window-through  
the dirt and grim-at the snowy world. Andie making snow angles. The  
steal toe of his boot hit one of the legs of his bed. Andie and that  
creep who broke his CD. One of the pictures on the wall fell as he  
slammed the door shut behind him and thumped down the stairs.  
He walked past Toad and Fred sitting in the living room watching the  
TV. A huge sub sandwich stuck out of Fred's mouth and his hand groped  
through a bag of Cheetoes. Toad hung upside-down off the coffee  
table-flies congregated around his head.  
"Where you goin'?"  
Asher turned to see Wanda leaning against the wall next to the kitchen.  
He rolled his eyes. "Why don't you go make someone cry Wanda?"  
"Somebody's got a thorn up his back-side." Tabitha said emerging from  
the kitchen as well.  
Asher crossed his arms. "Then you best not be messin' with him." He  
slammed the door behind him. More pictures fell.  
His boots sunk deep in the snow-up to the knee. His breath came out  
coated in condensation. Up in the sky the clouds hid the sun, no birds  
sang. But the wind howled. It pushed the trees so that it seemed they  
would break. Asher shoved his hands in his pockets and walked against  
the wind. He set his jaw.  
When he reached the Xavier mansion he stopped and stared through the  
gates. The house was so big, much bigger than the Brotherhood Boarding  
house. He searched for a doorbell. A car drove up and stopped beside  
him. The left window rolled down and very familiar face peered out of  
it.  
"You lookin' for Andie?" The young man said.  
"How'd you know?"  
He grinned. "We met at the bar-I'm the guy who hexed you," he said.  
Asher nodded.  
"Do you want to come in and see her?"  
"You'd let me come in there?" Asher asked.  
"Sure-why, are you a spy or something?"  
Asher laughed. "No-I just want to see Andie."  
The young man hopped out of the car-assisted by a pair of crutches and  
the car drove into the mansion. He extended a hand. "Ryan Walker."  
"Asher."  
They walked through the open gates. Asher stared at Ryan. Why would he  
trust him? He didn't know him at all-except that he was Andie's brother  
and that he created and controlled fire. "So," Asher said. "Why are  
you just letting me come in here? How do you know I'm not a spy?"  
Ryan grinned. His brown eyes squinted as the sun poked its way though  
the clouds. "I prefer to trust people." He moved on in silence for a  
few moments and then looked back up at the giant. "Besides-I think  
Andie wants to see you."  
Asher glanced down at Ryan's foot and laugh. "Is that what Wanda did to  
your foot?"  
Ryan laughed. "Yeah, she did."  
"I thought you guys had a healer or somethin'," Asher said.  
"We do."  
"So why didn't you get him to heal you?"  
Ryan simply moved on. They mounted the steps rather slowly-Asher tried  
not to go to fast for Ryan. Then, they walked inside.  
Huge, absolutely huge. For the first time in his entire life Asher felt  
small.  
Ryan let out a heavy breath. He looked winded-the skin beneath his eyes  
swelled and his chest rose and fell quickly. "Well, I'm not even going  
to try to make it up the stairs so we're going to take the elevator."  
The walked over to the right of the stairs and entered the elevator.  
"She should be up in her room, but we'll see. We're the only one's home  
at the moment because everyone else is at school so she should be  
there."  
Asher glanced at the scars on Ryan's face. Part of him itched to ask  
where they came from, but another part warned him not too. The doors  
opened and Ryan led him down a hall and stopped in front of one of the  
doors. He knocked the back of his hand against the shiny wood.  
"Yeah?"  
They heard a dull thud. It sounded like someone falling over.  
Ryan laughed. "Andie it's Ryan, you have a visitor."  
"Just a sec." More thuds. Drawers opened and closed as did doors, and  
finally the lock clicked and she opened her door. The grin faded and  
her mouth hung slightly open. "Ryan-"  
"Andie." Ryan took her hand. "Talk to him." That said, he hobbled  
away.  
Asher cleared his throat. Andie sighed. "Can I come in?" Andie pushed  
the door out of the way and walked to her bed. Big room. Clean  
room-surprise, surprise. Andie sat down on her bed and drew her knees  
to her chest.  
Asher sighed. "Look Andie, this is stupid. I don't want to be in a  
fight anymore okay? How 'bout I let you live your life and you let me  
live mine, how's that?"  
Andie stared down at the floor and played with a string hanging from her  
jeans. She rested her chin on her knees.  
Asher groaned and sat on the chair beside her bed. He leaned on his  
knees and looked up at her. "Andie this is killing me."  
She put her forehead on her knees hiding her face.  
Asher rolled his eyes. "Oh come on you've been doing that since you  
were in the first grade. It only works on Mom and Dad remember? I see  
past your spoiled princess act."  
"I'm not a spoiled princess," she said, her pouty voice muffled by her  
knees.  
"Oh yeah? I think you are." Asher said. He reached out and tickled  
her sides.  
She squealed and rolled onto her side trying to push his hands away.  
"Yeah see, spoiled princess."  
Andie grinned and lunged at him. Her arms wrapped around his neck. "I  
want my big brother back." Despite her smiling face he heard her voice  
quiver.  
Asher hugged her close and rubbed her back. Finally, peace. He just  
listened to her cry and held her. Five year of separation and they blew  
a few months over some stupid argument that was resolved in a matter of  
seconds. Wasted. Completely wasted.  
Andie leaned back rubbing the tears from her cheeks. "I'm sorry Asher,"  
she said.  
"Yeah, you gotta stop acting like a girl."  
She smiled and slugged him in the shoulder.  
"Man, you hit harder than you used to."  
"Yeah, I keep forgetting. I hit Hope in the shoulder the other day and  
I gave her bruise." They both laughed. "I'm sorry I told you how to  
live your life Asher. I just wanted things to turn out the way I wanted  
them to."  
Asher grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Guess that's how we all  
are. Like those earrings." He pointed to the silver rings that crawled  
up her left ear. "You look like a punk."  
"Hey, it was my way of rebelling against Mom and Dad. You should have  
seen their reaction when they found out about my bellybutton- uh-"  
"You got your bellybutton pierced?" Asher asked. "Any other body  
mutilations I should know about?"  
Andie's face reddened and she gabbed her pillow. "Maybe."  
Asher crossed his arms and lowered his eyebrows. "What?"  
She pulled the bottom of her pant leg up and pushed her sock down. A  
small bumblebee hovered in mid-flight on her ankle. Andie grinned.  
Asher rolled his eyes and sighed. "I never should have left you to your  
own schemes."  
"You goof ball," Andie said. "I still have this." She leaned over the  
other side of her bed and came up with a big stuffed puppy. Its ears  
flopped as she set him on her lap.  
Asher put a hand over his eyes. "Oh, the dog."  
"Yes, the dog. You were so proud of winning him at Disney Land. And  
you were such a good brother to give it to your little sister."  
"Yeah and you were so kind to name it after me," Asher said.  
"Yeah, he's missing an eye though."  
Asher sighed and leaned back in the chair again. He stared at his  
little sister. Not so little anymore. He had seen her in the mall but  
he really hadn't seen her. The only reason he recognized her was  
because Anthony had called her Andrea Daugherty. The last time he saw  
her, five long years ago, her hair, brown at the time, hung down to her  
elbows in two braids with little pink bows at the ends, and she wore a  
pink dress. That's how he wanted to picture her forever-the little girl  
with the long pigtails and the little hopeful pink dress.


	56. Hazy Sweetness

Chapter 56: Hazy Sweetness

Spike woke up to a hissing sound. He opened his eyes to see a blue haze  
filling the tunnel-it smelled sweet, like candy. The smell filled his  
head and his eyes grew heavy. "Oh no."


	57. Drugged Up On HydroCodeine

Chapter 57: Drugged Up On Hydro-Codeine

Frigid wind bit Max and Lilly's faces as they ran towards the park.  
Max's rib cage lit on fire as he laughed and gasped for air. Their  
shoes kicked up gravel as they ran to the swings. Lilly leaped onto one  
and ascended high into the air. Max collapsed into the rubber seat and  
leaned his head against the chain. His arm and neck and ribs burned.  
Stupid Duncan, he thought.  
Overhead the moon watched them as the clouds swam over it. Max looked  
up at Lilly and grinned. Her long hair beat her back as she swung back  
and forth, back and forth, back and. Max had to look down. All the  
back and forthing made his stomach sway.

  
"What's wrong Maxi?" Lilly asked. Her feet dragged in the gravel and  
she slowed to a stop.

  
"This stupid codine or hydro-codine or what ever it is, is making me  
nauseous," he said.

  
"Oh," Lilly said sliding the back of her hand down the side of his  
face. "Poor Cowboy."

  
Max felt his eyes cross and he leaned his head against the chain nearer  
to her. He shut his eyes and she continued to stroke his face.  
Everything felt so heavy. A pounding started at the center of his  
forehead and before he knew it a heavy pain shot through his back and  
all of the air in his lungs whooshed out through his mouth. He groaned.

"Max, are you okay?"

  
He opened his heavy eyes to see Lilly staring down at him. He tried to  
sit up but everything felt so heavy, and his ribs hurt. 

"Yeah sure, can I just lie here for a while?"

  
"Well, if it wasn't snowing I sure would let ya cowboy, but as it is,"  
Lilly pulled him to a sitting position. "We should probably get home."

  
They tried to stand. Max grabbed the chain of the swing and with a  
little help from Lilly he managed to stand. But the world continued to  
move in odd directions. All he wanted to do was lie on the ground and  
sleep, but Lilly was right, they needed to get out of the snow. With  
only a few major spills he and Lilly reached the car. 

"Thank goodness you're driving," Max said. "I think I might kill someone if I did."

  
"If you're lucky it might be Duncan," Lilly said.

  
Max laughed. It sounded funny, like it did when he had downed one too  
many drinks. 

"Take me home Lilly." He put his hand on hers, and his eyelids sunk to meet each other.

  
An idea popped into Lilly's head. She slid her hand around behind his  
head and brushed her long nails across the back of his neck. Max rolled  
his head to face her.  
  


"Is it time Lilly?" He asked. He grinned-the codine had taken over his brain.

  
Lilly leaned over and brushed his neck with a kiss and blew in his ear.  
Max laughed a goofy laugh. He pointed a finger at her. 

"You're trying to get me to mess up aren't you? Well it's not going to work miss  
Beckham, I'm strong and I can resist your temptation you vile temptress you." He giggled.

  
"Max, you just giggled," Lilly said.

  
"Did I?" He giggled again.

  
Lilly slid her hand up his thigh and continued to blow in his ear.  
Max's eyes started to cross and he felt himself fall again. This time  
he collapsed over the stick shift. His head landed in Lilly's lap. The  
smell of her kiwi mango perfume filled his nose and then his lungs.  
This time, he did not make any attempt to move.

  
"Max, are you okay?" Lilly asked.

  
"I've resigned myself to the painkiller," Max mumbled.

  
"Well, you're not going to be any fun tonight are you?"

  
Max said nothing.

  
"I'll just have to go find Pietro Maximoff, what do you think?"

  
Still nothing.

  
"Or maybe Duncan."

  
Silence.

  
"I hate you!" Lilly smacked him on the head. "You take all the fun out of teasing you."

  
Max lay there completely still.  
She took his cowboy hat off slowly and laid it on the dashboard. Still  
no reaction. Lilly grinned and started to run her nails through his  
hair. It felt so soft between her fingers, each strand ran right back  
into its original place. She lifted her fingers to her nose and inhaled  
the scent of shampoo. Max rolled onto his left side so that his right  
arm no longer lay wedged between his chest and the seat. In the dark  
one of the signatures glowed on his cast. Lilly Beckham-Get well soon  
cowboy. The words seemed deeper tonight as she read them in the dark.  
Their connotation meant the same thing, but not so much as just a  
friend. True, Max was arrogant, and promiscuous, and probably a liar,  
but still. At times, like today, when he stood up to Duncan, he seemed  
almost. heroic. Lilly laughed. Wow, that sounded corny, she thought.  
But as her fingers traveled over his scalp the truth of those words, the  
deeper truth, shone right along with the glow in the dark letters. She  
felt something for him. Stop it Lilly, this is ridiculous, she  
thought. You said no falling in love. But he is very cute, so keep  
playing with him; besides, there's no way he loves you.  
  



	58. Nightmares

Chapter 58: Nightmares

Professor Xavier sat up in bed. Sweat poured down his face and his body  
shook. He gasped for breath and slowly eased back into his pillows.  
His mind searched the city for the cry of help that rang through his  
mind. Nothing. Only silence answered his call. All the children lay  
safe in their beds, as did the X-Men, and no one was on the property,  
nothing to worry about. He sighed and shut his eyes, readjusting in his  
bed, pulling the covers to his chin.  
The professor rolled onto his side, then to the other. He pushed the  
covers away from his chin and pushed the pillow between his head and  
shoulder. Nothing helped. The voice that had cried echoed through the  
chambers in his mind. It sounded so helpless and weak, but desperate  
too. He finally pushed up out of his bed and slid into his wheelchair.  
After he pulled his robe from the bedpost he rolled out of his room.  
The moon shone through the windows as he entered the elevator. He  
shivered, despite his warm robe. The door slid open and Xavier made his  
way down the long corridor towards Cerebro.  
"Welcome Professor," the computer said.  
Xavier gazed around the giant cylindrical room as he entered in and  
shivered again. Though the machine helped enhance his power, it was  
still a machine. He pulled on the helmet and the sound of the doors  
closing behind him echoed. The doors of the world opened to him and he  
saw everyone's minds.  
"The Morlocks." Xavier said. "Something's gone terribly wrong with the  
Morlocks."  
  



	59. Taming of the Storm

Chapter 59: Taming of the Storm

The sound of water dripping and mice squeaking filled Ororo Monroe's  
ears as she entered into the pipe world. She shivered at the thought of  
the walls closing in on her but she moved on, hovering above the dirty  
water. The stench of the sewer made her gag and she wished that Evan  
had decided to stay at home, and that the Morlocks had some place else  
to stay, but they didn't. As she reached her destination a new smell  
entered her nostrils-a sweet smell, like candy.


	60. The Day AfterYesterday?

"The reason I called you all here tonight is that I must inform you that we, mutants in general, may possibly be under some sort of attack." The Professor started around the table at the students-no one wanted to be there. Ryan sat upright in his chair, but his eyelids constantly dropped down and he had to pull them open again. Andie swung her legs under her seat and guzzled a coke to keep herself awake. Hope sipped a cup of black coffee but her eyes threatened to shut as well. Max and Bobby did not even make an effort to look awake. A puddle of frozen drool covered the table by the side of Bobby's face and Max kept slumping over onto Anthony, who in turn shoved him back over to his side. No one reacted to the professor's news. "Earlier this evening Trask and Dobson captured all the Morlocks by knocking them out with sleeping gas." "We kind of thought there'd be an attack of some kind," Ryan said. "That's why we have a spy." "A spy?" Scott asked. "Yeah, when we found out that Dobson had bailed Mr. Trask out of jail we sent a spy to go and check out the lab where we knew Trask and Dobson would be at-" "How did you find out where that was, and who did you send?" Scott asked. Max, whose head still lay on the table like a paperweight, raised his hand. "Trask is my father, I just asked the right questions and they led me to him, and we sent Andie out as a spy." "Well I thank you three for your efforts," the Professor said. "But I would appreciate it if you'd inform me next time you want to do something of that nature." "As if you didn't know what we were up to," Max said. "Yes sir," Ryan said. He kicked Max under the table. "Ow." Max grumbled. "What'd you find out?" Gene asked. "Not much," Andie said. "Just that they were going after the Morlocks and were going to take them out this very night with sleeping gas." All eyes turned in her direction, including Max and Ryan's. "I'm just kidding," Andie said. "All I really found out was that they are teaming together with that dude who made the drink that hurts mutants, and that we are their main target. I had to leave because they had gone to get a towel to wipe up the water on the floor. I would have put little microphones and cameras in the room but seeing as I had none." She shrugged. "So why didn't you tell us this?" Scott asked. "I don't mean to sound rude but I think that's an important bit of information." Max, Ryan and Andie stared at each other for a moment. "We wanted more information," Ryan said. "We were going to send Andie out again yesterday but...she had a visitor." Ryan looked over at the Professor. "We're sorry, we didn't tell you anything Professor, we will next time." Xavier nodded. "It's all right Ryan, there's nothing to be done about that, however, now we must find a way to save the Morlocks and prevent Dobson and Trask from kidnapping anymore mutants," he said. "And that leads me to another announcement. Storm went out tonight to check on the Morlocks and she disappeared." Gasps rose all around the room. Now everyone looked at the Professor. This loss hit sharper than the Morlocks disappearance. The Morlocks seemed so far away because they lived in the sewers but Storm taught class everyday, Storm ate breakfast with them every morning, Storm slept in the next bedroom. A new fear sprouted in each person's heart, one they had not felt before. If they had the power to capture Storm, they certainly had the power to capture the rest of them. Scott sighed. "So what do you suggest Professor?" "For the moment, I suggest we set up a guard, we have no idea what Dobson and Trask are exactly capable of. We don't need to get cocky, if they can get the Morlocks, they can get us. For now everyone go to bed. Scott and Wolverine will be on guard, and Ryan, Max and Andie, I would like to speak with you." Chairs scraped across the floor as everyone stood and walked to the door. In a few moments only the Professor, Andie, Max and Ryan sat at the table. They all stared at the table. "Don't worry," Professor Xavier said. "You're not going to get a lecture." Andie and Ryan's chairs creaked as they relaxed, Max just propped his chin up on the palm of his hand. The hydro-codine still ran through his veins and he fought to keep his eyes open. "I simply wanted to ask if you'd like to continue spying, only doing it a little more...professionally, shall we say," Professor Xavier asked. Ryan glanced at Andie and Max. "It's up to you Andie," he said. "You're our spy." Andie tapped her calloused fingers on the table and rubbed her eyes, driving the sting away. She looked up at the Professor nodding her head. "Yeah, though I don't know how much I'll find out." "What we are going to do is really quite simple," Professor Xavier said. "I'm going to give you some microphones, the ones you talked about earlier and you are going to plant them in Dobson and Trask's lab. At the same time, try to find out where the Morlocks and Storm are." "Yes sir," Andie said. "Very well. Now Ryan and Max, I want you two to be in constant communication with Andie when she does goes in. We don't have to do it tonight, but let's try and get started on it tomorrow," Professor Xavier said. He looked at the three students. He worried about putting their lives in danger but other mutants' lives were on the line and they could not simply leave them to die. "I want you all to know that I would not have chosen anyone else to do this job, you three would have been my first choice," he paused. "Now off to bed with all of you." As the professor watched them leave he laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them. He wondered why he had not acted sooner. 


	61. OpticCrash

> "So, it's pretty much an Apocalypse," Andie said to the Professor
> 
> the next morning. "Dobson and Trask are planning on wiping out mutant
> 
> kind. First, they're going to take us down, then, they're going after
> 
> everyone else."
> 
> "Tell us some thing we don't know," Scott said rubbing the back of
> 
> his head.
> 
> "Dobson has Stryker's formula and he going to turn us against each
> 
> other, the Morlocks, Storm," Andie said. "He's going to make it look like
> 
> we all killed each other off. He's not dumb enough to use the Sentinels
> 
> again. And he's going to use the Power-8 on those of us he somehow
> 
> fails to capture."
> 
> "Well, that's good news," Max said.Ryan shook his head. "We have to stop him," Scott said. "We need
> 
> to act now." "And do what?" Hope asked. "Storm the castle? Take
> 
> Stryker and Dobson down? Make us look like murders to the public?
> 
> That would look real good." The Professor rubbed his chin, but remained
> 
> silent. "Hope's right we can't just dive in without a plan," Ryan said.
> 
> "Thanks captain obvious," Max said. For a moment everyone sat in the
> 
> silence. Through the window a pink sun splashed onto the tile floor and
> 
> the smell of fresh coffee hung above their heads, along with the
> 
> impending doom. Andie's hand shot in the air and the Professor
> 
> laughed. "Andie, we're not in school, you don't need to raise your hand."
> 
> Andie blushed. "This may not be a popular suggestion, but I think we
> 
> should team up with The Brotherhood," she said. "Are you sadistic?"
> 
> Scott asked. "We can't trust them, they're-" "Mutants like us," Ryan cut in.
> 
> "I think Andie's right, there's strength in numbers." "Yeah, and her brother
> 
> has like...awesome powers," Max said. Scott shook his head. "Okay, if
> 
> you want to play house with unwashed masses that's fine, but personally
> 
> I'd rather take them out now and get it over and done with." "Scott, now is
> 
> not the time for rash action, that's how we lost Storm," the Professor
> 
> said. "I don't think I'm being rash, I think I'm being smart, get them before
> 
> they get us." "Hold up Fearless Leader, I know you want to get your optic
> 
> blast on, but I think you need to spend a little more time prioritizing,"
> 
> Andie said holding her hand up. "I've thought it through and I'm going,"
> 
> Scott said. "The only question is, who's going with me?" The sound of
> 
> birds chirping replied. "All right, if that's the way you want it, you feel free
> 
> to sit here and wait to die." The swinging door scraped the wall. The
> 
> Professor rolled after him, in a vain attempt to change Scott's mind.


	62. I Told Ya So

"Well, I hate to be the one to say 'I told you so'--" "Oh shut up Max you know you do," Ryan said. "We did tell him so, and he got caught didn't he? He didn't last two seconds alone did he?" Max said. Despite Max's joking the fear crept into the room. Hope shivered despite the warm blanket wrapped around her body and Ryan's massive arm around her shoulders. Scott had fallen so fast that it made their heads spin. They had thought he would loose on his own but not quite so quickly. Ryan had tried to go after him to either help or stop him but Hope, Max and Andie held him at bay. "So what do we do now Professor?" Ryan asked. "Trask and Dobson have Scott, Storm and the Morlocks, there's no telling when they're going to turn them against us, and though Scott made a bad decision he was right, we need to do something." Andie's chair bumped across the floor as she stood. "I'm going to talk to The Brotherhood." "All right," the Professor said. "We should have done that earlier." "Going now." Andie disappeared through the swinging door. Hope sighed and grabbed a fistful of hair out of her face. "This is nuts," she said. "I never realized how much some people hated mutants." "Believe me," Max said motioning to his broken arm. "They do." She shook her head and glanced over at Ryan. His eyes focused on the table and the skin between his eyebrows wrinkled. He tapped his fingers on the table, then rubbed his chin. Dobson had two of the most powerful mutants and the Morlocks and no matter how he figured it, he could see no way out of the mess they were in. 


	63. The Perfect Storm

As Andie walked towards the gates the wind grew colder and she shivered. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms more tightly trying to keep the heat in and the cold out. But soon her legs started to freeze under her and she had not even reached the gate. The wind started to push her backwards and she fell to her backside. The sky darkened-darker than she had ever seen, the trees bent until they almost broke and snow filled the air so thick that Andie lost vision completely. Snow froze her hands as she tried to stand and her body was racked with a violent shiver. Come on, get up girl! She coached herself. Andie pushed hard but could not for the life of her beat the wind. Snow caked her eyes and started to fill her mouth and run down her shirt. Her hands lost feeling completely and her feet were right behind them. With her jacket sleeve she pushed the snow from her eyes and caught a glimpse of something that made her sick to her stomach...Storm; eyes white hands overhead creating such a massive blizzard around the mansion that soon Andie was blind again. Oh no, she thought. They've turned her against us. "Stor-" She tried to call to her mentor but was cut off as snow choked her. She coughed violently. Okay, you can't stand upright so crawl, she told her self. Andie rolled to her stomach and clawed in a circle so she faced the direction she had been moving in before. But by the time she'd reached that position her feet had followed her hands and lost all feeling and her legs were on their way. She didn't even try to push to all fours but used her elbows-which still had some feeling-to push herself forward. Slowly...her arms...lost feeling, slowly...she...grew...more...and...more exhausted, slowly...she...lost...consciousness... 


	64. Anthony's Mission

"Where's Andie?" Everyone looked up at Anthony, but said nothing. "Hello, has the blizzard turned your brains to mush? Where's Andie?" Ryan stood carefully and pointed out the window. "She went to get help from the Brotherhood." "In that?" Ryan said nothing but grabbed his jacket from the chair and headed for the door. There was no storm when Andie first left but now one could not see two feet. "Stay behind gimpy we don't want two people stuck out in that," Anthony said. "I'm going to find her." "As if you won't get stuck out there too," Hope said. Anthony grinned and snapped his fingers. When the spark of fire grew he laughed. "Don't worry about me." Then, he disappeared through the door into the white night. 


	65. I'll Be Back

Asher jolted up in bed and nearly flipped over the side. His breath came out in short gasps and he touched his head. Sweat dripped down the side of his face and he tried to recall what had disturbed him so. A dream? No. He thought he'd heard Andie call for help. He shook his head. It was too real to have just been a dream. She was lying in the snow outside of the X- Mansion. Suddenly the door swung open and Asher's head snapped to the side. Todd hopped in, followed by his groupie flies. "Yo guess what?" "Not in the mood for guessing games Toad," Asher said swinging his legs out of bed and reaching for a shirt. "Storm's gone nuts over at the X-Mansion, she's completely snowed in the place and the Morlocks have completely disappeared." The dream, Asher thought. He pulled on his thermal shirt and then his sweater and changed from sweat pants to jeans and threw on his boots. "I'll be back." "Where ya goin' yo?" "I think Andie's in trouble." "But she's-" "My sister," Asher said. "And if the X-Men are in trouble chances are we'll be next, so we'd better team up at least for now or it's over. You can come with me or not but I'm out." 


	66. Forces of Nature

> The instant Anthony stepped out the door he nearly flew back in. The
> 
> palms of his hands burned as he grabbed the sides of the door and
> 
> forced himself back out into the waist deep snow. He squinted into the
> 
> sky as he slammed the door shut behind him and saw Storm. "Oh great,"
> 
> he groaned. "Mind control. Well two can play at that game." Anthony
> 
> raised his hands in front of him and set his jaw. The snow parted, but
> 
> only enough for him to move forward. Storm was too strong, and he had
> 
> to find Andie. With his arms still in front of him he pushed harder. There
> 
> was no sense in simply running out into the blizzard this way; he had to
> 
> clear the grounds as much as possible so he could see. Maybe he
> 
> should have let Ryan come after all, he could stop Storm. But he had no
> 
> time; in the storm Andie probably hadn't even made it to the gate. His
> 
> concentration paid off. The clear circle that surrounded him spread over
> 
> the yard and he moved forward quickly. He felt Storm's gaze on him and
> 
> then her force. The walls he'd made ceased to grow and started closing
> 
> in. Anthony felt his arms start to shake as he tried to regain control.
> 
> Outside of his 'force field' the white blindness thickened and grew heavy,
> 
> as if he now carried a heavy burden. In the distance he caught a glimpse
> 
> of Andie's red coat. She'd made it further than he thought, only a few feet
> 
> away from the gates. At this sight Anthony felt his original drive
> 
> strengthen and he gave one more push. The wall stopped moving in
> 
> either direction and that was good enough for him. Andie was not far.
> 
> However, Storm had not given her final push either. She smiled from her
> 
> place in the sky and raised her arms above her head. A gust of wind and
> 
> snow and now hail whirled toward the boy she no longer recognized. The
> 
> bubble around him collapsed under the force and he fell backwards,
> 
> motionless.


	67. Stubborn

> After Anthony had left Ryan had not sat down and obeyed orders. He
> 
> thought for a moment and then headed for the elevator. "Ryan, where are
> 
> you going?" Hope asked. "I'll be right back." Ryan called over his
> 
> shoulder. With that he slipped into the elevator. At the top floor Ryan
> 
> limped as quickly as he could for the set of stairs that lead to the roof.
> 
> His foot burned as he climbed the stairs but he made it to the top. He
> 
> grabbed the handrails and with a deep breath grasped and turned the
> 
> handle. The wind threw it into his face but did not throw him back. He
> 
> shoved himself into the blizzard and pulled the door shut behind him. The
> 
> snow blinded him so he shut his eyes, useless as they were a inched
> 
> along the wall. All at once the wind and snow changed direction and
> 
> Ryan opened his eyes. Taking this opportunity to move he made his way
> 
> as quickly as possible toward the end of the roof. He saw Storm
> 
> directing all her power in one direction, and he barely made out two dark
> 
> figures in the midst of the gale. Ryan returned his gaze to Storm. "Sorry
> 
> 'bout this," he whispered and raised his hand into the wind. Electric blue
> 
> streaks shot through the air and enveloped Storm's figure. All snow, hail,
> 
> and wind came to an abrupt halt. Anthony pulled himself back up and
> 
> wasted no time asking questions. He shot forward and scooped Andie
> 
> out of the snow, then turned back to the mansion. "Jean!" Ryan yelled to
> 
> Anthony. "Get Jean to come to the roof!" Anthony nodded and ran as fast
> 
> as possible. Ryan reached up another hand to generate more control.
> 
> Suddenly a burning pain shot through his midsection and sent him onto
> 
> his back. He slid across the icy ground into the brick wall knocking his
> 
> head. His vision went black.


	68. First Time

The door slapped shut behind Anthony as he ran into the kitchen.

"Andie!" Hope cried.

"Someone get Jean to go to the roof," Anthony said. "Ryan's in trouble."

A kitchen chair clanked to the floor and Max disappeared down the hallway. He turned the corner and halted right before plowing into Jean. "Jean!" Max said.

"I know, Ryan needs help," Jean said. "Let's go, I'll need you there to, I think we have more problems than just Storm."

Together they headed to the elevator. "We need to wire this thing so it'll go faster," Max said. He put his hand on the wall and with more speed than ever before, the circuits jolted and the room shot to the top of the mansion.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Beast, Hope and Anthony carried Andie to the fire. "We need to get her some dry clothes," Beast said.

Hope jumped up and ran up the stairs.

"Will she be okay?" Anthony asked looking slightly up from Andie's face.

Beast sighed. "She's still breathing, but…I can't be sure. After we get her warm we need to get her down to the Medical Ward quickly. Not only could she have hypothermia but also frost bite. Rub her hands."

Anthony did as he was told and looked over her small face. The skin appeared blue and especially dark around the eyes. Her hands felt so cold. He then did something he'd never done before. _God, please help her…please._


	69. Casualties

Jean and Max threw open the door just in time to see Ryan slide into the wall. The blue sphere that once enveloped Storm broke like glass and she turned white eyes on the two new comers.

"I'll take care of Storm," Jean whispered to Max. "You go to the edge of the roof and…take care of Scott."

"Scott?"

A white wave poured from the sky towards them. "Go! Go!" Jean yelled holding her hands up to ward off the assault.

Max ran to the edge of the roof and nearly fell backwards as a red beam shot past him. Scott stood in the yard, hand to his visor. Another beam headed toward Max but this time he raised his hands and shot blue waves of electricity back. The two colors met in the middle in one large explosion. Smoke filled the sky and both boys slid slightly back from the impact. Scott lost his balance and his hand dropped momentarily. Max sent a weak bolt at his opponent, just enough to knock him down. /Oh where's Rouge when I need her? / And then, as if Rouge had suddenly acquired telepathic abilities, she ran across the yard toward Scott. Just as he started to stand she had his face in her hands and he lay unconscious.

/Score, X-Men 1 Dr. Dobson none. / Max thought. He turned back to face Storm and Jean, locked in a death battle. "Jean!"

"Help Ryan!"

Max growled to himself, he never liked taking orders from girls, but seeing Ryan lying on the ground, blood soaking his blond hair he did as he was told. His feet slid on the ice but he kept his balance. When he reached Ryan he almost hit the wall himself. As quickly and as carefully as he could he reached down and picked Ryan up, not wanting to waste time on trying to wake him up. He kicked the door open and turned his head to Jean.


	70. UNSort of

Hey y'all. Enjoy and please review. Thanks everyone for your support.

Bobby ran through the snow towards Rouge holding a bandana. Rouge had already stolen Scott's visor so she could see without destroying everyone around her.

"What's that for?" She asked.

"It's to keep Scott from doing anything if he wakes up anytime soon," Bobby said. "We need to get him in to the Professor so we can figure out what's going on."

Together they blindfolded Scott and had just hoisted him over their shoulders when a sharp piece of wood grazed Rouge's shoulder, ripping her jacket. "Spike, crap."

"Hurry!" Bobby said.

But Rouge turned to face Spike. "Go, I'll try to hold him off while you get Scott inside," she said.

Bobby had no time to argue. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Scott woke up before he got him to the professor. As he ran toward the house he heard the sound of wood exploding in the air, but he didn't look back.

"Come on Spike, don't make me hurt you," Rouge said, under her breath.

They faced each other as if in a draw, just waiting for the other to move. Their breath came out coated in steam and neither budged from their positions. It was a stalemate. Spike tried one more time to send a stake at Rouge but this time it burst into flames and disintegrated before it was three inches from his hand. Rouge looked beyond Spike to see an odd sight. Asher, Andie's older brother, stood in the open gate, his hands on his hips and a smug grin on his face.

Spike growled and sent an army of stakes at the new comer. Then things really got strange. From behind Asher a long green tongue whipped out and wrapped itself around three spikes, the ground rumbled and a branch fell from the tree above landing on two of them, and finally Blob caught the last of them, snapping them like tooth picks in his massive hands. Toad and Avalanche came to stand beside Blob and Asher. The Brotherhood had come to help. Strange indeed.

Rouge used the distraction to her advantage, she ran up behind Spike and knocked him unconscious with one blow of her heel, she didn't want another man in her head. She was about to say something to the Brotherhood when all of a sudden the ground shook, and everyone knew it wasn't because of Avalanche.

They all looked beyond the gates to see not one, but three Sentinel's standing at their gates with an army of Morlocks at their feet.

One word ran through all their minds. "Crap."


	71. Cold to the Core

"Dobson's using Striker's elixir," Professor X said as Bobby lugged Scott onto the elevator to take him down to the medical ward.

"Oh that's good," Bobby grumbled. "Chances are this one is stronger than the first."

The doors opened and Bobby and the professor walked into the cold, sterol room. Beast, Hope, and Anthony stood already stood around Andie. Beast was just checking her tympanic temperature. "89. She's breathing and she has a pulse…Hope, get me some more blankets, the oronasal mask from the cabinet, the I.V. and it's warmer, and the box on the counter there. We need to warm her core. Anthony there's nothing you can do here go help the others outside."

"But-"

"Go, the best way to help Andie is to stop them from getting in here."

Anthony ground his teeth for a moment then turned and ran past Bobby and the professor into the elevator.

Bobby dumped Scott onto one of the beds looked down at Andie. The skin surrounding her eyes was a bluish-gray and she appeared dead. His only clue that she was alive was the smoky breath escaping her parted lips; the room was getting colder.

"How is she?" Bobby asked looking at Andie.

"She's border lining sever hypothermia, but she's not lost yet," Beast said. "I need to start elevating her core temperature but Hope can help me with that. Go help, unless the Professor needs you here."

"No, go Bobby," Professor X said.

Bobby turned and followed Anthony's trail.

"Heaven help us."


	72. Jinx

Ryan opened his eyes and for a moment was very confused. The last thing he remembered was sliding on his rear after something ridiculously hot hit his stomach. Now everything was moving beneath his eyes. He then recognized Max's boots.

"Max put me down I'm fine." Ryan said.

"Yeah right gimpy."

Ryan pushed at Max's shoulders but as he moved upwards the room spun slightly. For a moment he leaned back over feeling sick to his stomach. Then, however, he felt a shiver go down his back; the temperature in the house a dropped. He had to help. Rather than argue Ryan grabbed the handrail for the stairs and pulled himself off Max's shoulder.

"Ryan," Max said turning. "You probably have a concussion. I have to get you down to Hank."

"If we don't help worse things'll happen," Ryan said pushing up from the stair he sat on. "Besides, if I do have a concussion Hank'll just make me stay awake anyway. Might as well be productive."

Max shook his head and grinned. "Let's go punk. You go up I'll go down."

"Break!"

Max shot down the stairs to the elevator and Ryan hopped back up to the door to the roof. His head still throbbed and his foot did not feel much better, but when he felt the shake of the Sentinel's footsteps he felt his drive strengthen. Jean still stood a few feet away fighting Storm. Ryan moved as quickly as possible to the edge of the roof. The large robots had just reached the gates. He inhaled deeply and reached his hands out once again. From his right hand blue tentacles enveloped Storm. His left hand showed no signs of power, but as a Sentinel raised it's arm to smash the gate it's hinges came loose. The massive hunk of metal crashed to the ground. Seconds later the robot tripped over it's own arm and fell back onto another machine. The explosion filled the air and most of the mutants on the ground scattered.

Asher stretched his hands out. Fire enveloped the fallen Sentinels. Blob yanked a tree from the ground like a gardener pulling a weed and smashed another machine. Rouge used her newly acquired powers to blast the same one into oblivion.

Jean jumped from the roof and kicked Storm in the head. She caught her before she even started falling. It took some doing but she made it back to the roof. "You ok Ryan?"

"Yeah, you got her?"

"Yeah, I'll take her down stairs. You'd better come with me your head's still bleeding," Jean said.

"No, I'm good." Ryan aimed his power at another sentinel. It's head exploded. The sound made his ears ring and his vision blurred slightly but he held his ground.

"Ryan-"

"You'd better get Storm down there before she wakes up," Ryan said.

For a moment Jean thought about knocking him out and dragging him off the roof, but she knew she couldn't carry both Storm and Ryan. She turned and headed to the door. Just as it swung open she heard another explosion. Waves of heat encompassed her and she turned to see what had happened. Part of the mansion was in flames and Ryan was lying on his back. The arm of a Sentinel was smoking as it walked closer. Ryan rolled to his stomach and pulled himself up to his hands and knees. He spit blood but turned to Jean. "Go! Get inside."

She hesitated.

Ryan lifted his hand. Jean's powers sent her backwards and the door slammed shut.


End file.
